


Together We Grow (Season 2)

by BlueAthena



Series: TFA Together We Stand [2]
Category: Transformers Animated (2007)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Auto Teens are teenagers, Drift is the best crazy uncle, Fluff and Angst, Jazz is the best big bro, Mantis is ready to throw hands for her team/family, Minor Violence, Prowl tries, Ratchet is the cranky grumpy grandpa that secretly cares, Sentinel is an afthole, Slight Canon Divergence, Slow Romance, Team as Family, They either go to shenanigans or shenanigans go to them
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:21:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 50,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24626176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueAthena/pseuds/BlueAthena
Summary: [Sequel to TFA: Together We Stand]More action.More allies.More foes.More adventure.More discoveries.More secrets.More......feelings?Join Mantis, Prowl and the rest of the Autobots as they hurry to beat the Decepticons in a race to obtain the AllSpark fragments; defend Earth; confront past ghosts ; find Sari's father- Isaac Sumdac and other adventures while opening new doors to bigger horizons along the way.A/N: PS I do not own TFA or any of its characters, only my own. The art and picture used also belong to their rightful owner/ artists. I hope I am not plagiarizing or offending you. All Rights belong to them and TFA belongs to HASBRO.
Relationships: Prowl (Transformers) & Original Female Character(s), TBA - Relationship
Series: TFA Together We Stand [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1773217
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	1. The Elite Guard [1]

**Author's Note:**

> I will try my best to maintain a consistent fluid flow in the storyline. Keep in mind that although I will use elements from the canon episode list, I will also be adding my own fillers and my own original chapters. The latter will be used to give certain characters more screen time and development so I hope you guys don't mind.  
> Let me know what you think in the comments below, leave kudos and enjoy the story! ^w^/

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Elite Guard arrives and the visit goes less than smoothly.

Deep in the heart of downtown Detroit, Optimus, Bulkhead, Ratchet and Prowl were doing their best to assist in rebuilding the city after their battle against Megatron and the Decepticons. Currently, they were working on clearing away the rubble on the extensive highway system.

"This is a big cleanup job, even for a buncha maintenance bots like us." Bulkhead grunted as he lifted another piece of rubble onto Optimus's trailer.

Then car horns blared, many hurrying to their destination and being delayed by the blockage they had to set up to clear the rubble.

"Uh, one moment, ma'am." Optimus said politely, detaching himself from his trailer so he could heft the rubble out of their way.

As soon as the civilians saw him towering over them however.....

"Please don't hurt us!" the woman driving the car in front said fearfully. Then all the cars promptly hightailed away at a speed that could give Bumblebee a run for his money.

"Those humans were afraid of me." Optimus said. He felt......horrible. Autobots were meant to protect and now....people feared them. Did they think they were as bad as the Decepticons?

"Can ya blame em? After all we trashed half their city." Ratchet pointed out as he placed another piece of metallic rubble into the trailer using his magnets.

"I believe the _Decepticons_ did most of the trashing." Prowl also pointed out.

"I liked it better when we were heroes." Bulkhead said sadly as he sat down. He was used to people being intimidated by him but....but he thought that for once, that might change. Turns out he was wrong.

"We're still heroes, Bulkhead." Optimus reassured him. "We just have to remind them. Now let's all get back to work."

"Hey, where're the other two kids? Aren't they supposed to be helping too?" Ratchet asked, noticing the absence of Bumblebee and Mantis.

"Actually, about that...." Prowl said, remembering the even bigger mess Bee and Mantis had to help Sari clean up.

^^*************^^

"This is a nightmare!" Mantis said exasperated as she hefted another towering pile of papers into the office. Then her comm rang and she answered.

"Isaac Sumdac's office, please hold." Then another. "Isaac Sumdac's office, please leave a message." Then another. "Isaac Sumdac's office, please hold." She repeated.

Bee was dealing with a similar problem while helping her with 'organizing' all the paperwork.

"Isaac Sumdac's office, please hold. Isaac Sumdac's office, please hold. Isaac Sumdac's office...uh, no. Professor Sumdac still hasn't returned from his...extended vacation." Bee said.

While the others were cleaning up the mess in the city, Bee and Mantis were trying to help deal with the mess in Sari's father's company.

After her father's disappearance during their latest scuffle with the Decepticons, Sari had temporarily taken over his robotic business empire. Though determined, she couldn't do it alone, especially when she was still just a kid. Thus, Mantis and Bumblebee found themselves becoming her secretaries/assistants.

And frankly, their job satisfactory levels were way below zero at the moment.

"Isaac Sumdac's office, please hold." Mantis said again to another call. God, how many calls can one person make for another one person to get?

"Isaac Sumdac's office, I told you to slagging hold!" she snapped when the same person tried to call _again_. "We're busy, ok? Look it up!" then she ended it.

"Of course someone's running the company!" Bee said to whoever he had to deal with. "Someone very capable."

Said capable someone aka Sari released a cry of frustration and exhaustion. "UGH! No wonder my dad acted so crazy! How'd he do this?!" she asked, slumping over her- _his_ desk. It was her _father's_ desk, not hers.

Mantis gave her an apologetic s mile. Sari looked tiny in her father's chair, having to scoot to the front to reach the desk- said desk was swamped with papers and files and god knows what else that came with running a company. There were also boxes of other files and books and documents placed on the floor quite messily, threatening to trip them.

Sari made a mental note to never complain anything about her father's absence when he has to work ever again. Only now did it hit her just how much pressure came with running a company- especially a big-shot one like his.

"Isaac Sumdac's office, please hold." Mantis said wearily to another call and sighed. Then she lifted another stack of papers and tried to maneuver her way past all the other stacks of paper and boxes of book and files scattered haphazardly on the floor.

"Primus, why do you humans have so much paperwork?" she huffed as she tried to actually organize some of the stacks into easier to handle piles. "I mean, why not use datapads and hard drives?"

"Or better yet, just load em into your hardware systems. Easy." Bee said. Mantis could tell he too was getting tired with this.

And it's only the _beginning._

A part of her almost wished she had chosen to join Prowl and the others in cleaning up the city but she couldn't leave Sari to deal with this alone. She's lost her father- maybe not _gone_ gone like hers but still- at such a young age- actually....wasn't she the same age as Sari when it happened too?- and the emotional baggage that was dumped on her could bring a lot of unsavory effects. The pressure that came with having to now run his company didn't help either.

So of course, she and Bee decided they would support her as much as they could.

Then Sari got a call, a direct one patched right into her father's personal computer. She frowned, already having an inkling as to who it was and not wanting to deal with him.

Sure enough, Porter C. Powell's face showed up on the screen.

"Ms Sumdac, as chairman of your board of directors, I've been going over the books. And I see you're still wasting valuable resources searching for your missing father." He said.

Sari's patience which had already reached boiling point was beginning to bubble and hiss. She's already done this rodeo but Powell seems dead set on bugging her with it over and over again.

"Isn't it time you've accepted the fact that he's-" before he could finish that thought, Sari slammed her fist down onto the keyboard with surprising strength for an 8 year old, knocking some of the keys loose and effectively shutting Powell up for now.

"No!" she said firmly. "He's my dad. And if I were missing, he'd do the same for me." As if she's gonna let some stuck-up old man with a fancy suit, hairdo and glasses stop her from finding her father.

"Young lady, there's no room for sentiment in business. A mere child can't be entrusted to make sound decisions for the company!" he said.

Mantis scowled. Ok, rude and disrespectful, that guy better hope she doesn't answer his calls.

"This company's name is still _Sumdac_. So until you find my dad, I'm staying right here and there's nothing _you_ can do about it!" she said.

Powell seemed taken aback by her response. Obviously he didn't expect a little girl to put up this much of a fight. Ha, take that. Sari ended his call before he could compose himself.

"Dayum girl, you showed im' who's the boss." Mantis said with a proud smile.

Sari managed to find it in herself to smile back. Not the first time, she's glad that at least she has Bee and Mantis here to help her.

She sighed in relief. "Hold my calls. I need a break." She huffed.

"Ok, Boss Lady." Bee said jokingly. "But ya might wanna take a look at this." He said, pointing to the TV.

They all looked and lo and behold, another something entering the Earth's atmosphere and ready to come crashing down.

Seriously, it was getting old.

"All eyes are on the sky as a mysterious unidentified from space has entered the Earth's atmosphere heading straight for downtown Detroit." The news reporter said.

It wasn't unidentified to them. Already, they could tell it was no flaming asteroid or random space debris, it was a ship.

A Cybertronian one.

"Wait a click, that's where the others are." Mantis said as she put down the stack of papers she had planned on organizing.

"Then what're we waiting for?" Bee said, putting his stack of papers down too, eager to ditch all the paperwork.

The unidentified visitor to Earth didn't go unnoticed by the others either as they all paused in their cleanup to glance up at the asteroid.

"Did you guys see that?" Bee asked as he, Mantis and Sari ran over.

"It's kinda hard to miss." Ratchet deadpanned.

"We'd better look into it. Transform and roll out!" Optimus ordered. He prayed that whoever these were, they were friendly. The last thing they needed was to further damage what remained of the fragile trust between them and humans.

Soon, they arrived in Central Park where the spaceship had landed, squadrons of policemen and some SWAT already forming a perimeter.

"Secure the perimeter! We're not takin' any chances this time!" Captain Fanzone ordered through a megaphone.

It was then they all noticed with alarm, Fanzone was also surrounded with four cops armed with RPGs primed and ready to fire at the sign of any hostility. They quickly transformed and decided to intervene before things got even more out of hand.

"Have your men stand down! Let us handle this." Optimus said to Fanzone.

Fanzone barked a humorless laugh. "What? So you can wreck the _other_ half of the city? I don't think so!" he snapped.

Before they could argue any further, there was a slight hiss and soon, the ramp opened up, smoke pouring out briefly obscuring their vision. They all tensed, optics/eyes waiting to see who their uninvited visitors were and bodies stiffened, fingers primed on triggers of RPGs and guns alike, ready to jump into action should they be unfriendly.

All those worried were dispelled from the processors of the Autobots as the smoke cleared away to reveal four Autobots standing on the ramp, three of them bearing the unmistakable Elite Guard insignia.

Mantis instantly recognized two of them.

Of course, the first one all of them noticed instantly was Ultra Magnus, _the_ slagging Ultra Magnus, the top of the top in Cybertron, Supreme Commander of the Autobots, leader of the Cybertron Elite Guard and a war veteran of the Great War.

The second was......Drift.

He looked the same as ever. He stood there, servos crossed over his chassis, appearing casual and laid back, maybe even a bit bored but Mantis could see the vigilance in his optics, his digits twitching and ready to grab his signature falchion sword strapped on his back the moment he saw any signs of danger. Now however, his optics were wide as they fell on Mantis.

'What in the name of Cybertron is she doing here?!?!' he thought, struggling to not lose his entire composure right then and there as he saw his charge on an organic planet when he's pretty slagging sure he left her back on Cybertron last time.

Mantis gave him an apologetic smile and a small wave. Prowl noted this exchange and raised an optic ridge.

"Later." She mouthed to both of them.

Then she turned her attention towards the other two mechs.

One of them looked.........familiar. Like she's seen him before, yet she couldn't put her digit on it. He had a slightly intrigued look on his faceplate as he observed the other smaller humans surrounding them. 

The mech next to him however had his faceplate set in a disgusted irritated frown, as though he was surrounded by scrap. And wow, he had the biggest chin Mantis had ever seen. She's surprised he can keep his helm up that high with a chin that big, must be pretty hollow.

"Robots.....why did it have to be robots?" Fanzone groaned. Though he could tell that if the bold colours were anything to go by, these new robots seem to be on the Autobot's side......he hoped.

The team of Autobots walked to the base of the ramp as the humans gawked. They stood there, backs straight and saluted Ultra Magnus.

"Ultra Magnus, sir. Welcome to Earth, commander. It's an honor-" Ultra Magnus cut Optimus off before he could finish.

"Jazz, set up a force shield to quarantine us from those organics." Ultra Magnus ordered. Mantis noted his voice had that cool steeliness to it.

Wait a click, quarantine?!

Jazz glanced at him then looked at the organics one more time. He noted a smaller one- evidently younger and female- pushed her way to the front. Huh, unlike the others, she had something red on her head and her protoform was brown. Looks like they all looked different and diverse.

"You sure that's necessary, commander? I'd like to get a closer look." He said, voice curious.

'He sounds so chill and smooth.' Mantis thought.

"You might feel different when the slime they spew melts through your armor plating and rots your circuits from the inside." The dark blue bot scoffed.

Jazz seemed taken aback. "Really?" he asked, though there was a hint of doubt to it.

"I've had some experience with organics and believe me, nothing good can come from contact with them." Then he shot a smirk towards Optimus. "Isn't that right, Optimus?"

'He knows OP?' Mantis thought. He said his name with a sense of familiarity yet there was that smug condescending arrogance to it that didn't sit well with her.

Then he pressed a button on a remote he took out from his subspace. Soon the entire ship was slowly covered in a force field from top to bottom.

Noticing this, Sari ran as fast as she could but not fast enough before the force shield fully covered them, cutting her off from her friends.

"What the-hey! What's the big idea?" she protested, banging her fist on the force field, trying to get their attention.

"Sentinel Prime, decontaminate Optimus Prime and his crew." Ultra Magnus ordered.

"Decontaminate?" she asked Prowl, confused.

"With pleasure, sir." Sentinel said a bit too readily for Mantis's taste with that same smug smile that she's already starting to hate.

And so that was how they were led- more like herded in Mantis's case- into some decontamination chamber and forced to be assaulted by decontamination fluids shot at them with enough pressure to hurt for a lot longer than necessary. Mantis could practically see the satisfaction oozing from Sentinel as he tortured them.

There were complains and cries of protest and she, Prowl and Ratchet were quite vocal about it.

"Hey! Watch the chrome!" Ratchet snapped.

"Those are humans, not space barnacles!" Prowl spluttered through a face full of fluid. "This is ridiculous!"

"Hey! You decontaminating us or harassing us you-" she was cut off by a face full of fluid and spluttered in a much undignified way.

"Take it like a mech for once in your life, sweet thing." Sentinel scoffed. "And you! Quit coddling her, she ain't a sparkling." He said, pointing towards Prowl who managed to catch Mantis before she slipped while being blinded by the fluids.

Both glared at him and Mantis resisted the urge to just kick through the glass of this darn chamber and punch that smirk off!

"You! Tiny! Step out behind from your overgrown pal!" Sentinel called out Bee who tried to take cover behind Bulkhead.

"I don't think he remembers us." Bulkhead whispered to Bee.

"And it's just how I wanna keep it." Bee whispered back and closed his optics as another gust of fluid nearly hit them.

"This is completely unnecessary, Sentinel!" Optimus managed to get out as a hose shot him very accurately in the faceplate.

"Can't risk an infestation now, can we old buddy?" Sentinel asked mockingly. "Take it like a real bot!"

'Old buddy? So they do know each other.' Mantis thought. Though from the looks of things, they didn't seem to be on friendly terms.......................wait.

'Could he be?' Mantis looked at Optimus then at the arrogant rude mech. No way, Optimus couldn't have possibly been friends with someone like Sentinel.....right?

Thankfully, Jazz decided that enough was enough and pressed a button, turning it off. Mantis huffed and shook her helm, her dreads sending water splashing everywhere.

"Cool it, Sentinel. Whatever happened between you and Optimus, you don't need to hassle his crew." Jazz said.

"I thought real bots knew how to treat a femme." Drift remarked as he tossed a microfiber towel to Mantis who caught it gratefully. "Then again, I'm not surprised since it's you we're talking about." He said with a mocking smirk at the passive insult he shot at Sentinel.

Mantis smiled behind the towel. Same old Drift. She noticed he still didn't have any Elite Guard stripes on him which means he wasn't officially part of this crew. It was also pretty obvious there was no love lost between him and big chin.

Sentinel narrowed his optics and glared at him.

"Watch your glossa you ex-con." He snarled.

"Hey!" Mantis protested. "Leave him alone, you jerk. That was just low." Like hell she was gonna let some oafish stuck up Prime insult Drift- she knew that he had a past and would rather leave it as it is, in the past. She owed him that much after saving her skid plates all those vorns ago.

"You! Zip it and let the adults talk." Sentinel sneered at her, jabbing a digit to her faceplate.

"Sentinel...." Jazz said. There was a firmer undertone to his voice now. "That's enough. Young or old, all bots- including femmes, deserve to be treated with respect. And we all should just let bygones be bygones." He shot Drift a look which the other returned gratefully.

Sentinel just scoffed. "Whatever." He said. "Come on, you crankshafts. Quit keeping the Magnus waiting." Then he stomped off.

Mantis glared at his receding back. "Afthole." She muttered under her breath. Then she quickly walked over to the white mech- Jazz.

"Thanks for that." She said. Maybe.....maybe Jazz was different. He certainly didn't seem as bad as Sentinel.

He just gave her an easy going smile and tipped his helm- which was kinda shaped like a flat cap now that she thought about it.

"Well, we mechs gotta treat em ladies with respect. Part of our code and all that." Then he winked at her and she couldn't help but giggle.

Ok, Jazz she won't mind. He seemed like a pretty cool chill guy. But still, there was that nagging voice in her processor screaming at her that he was so darn familiar but damn it, she still couldn't put her digit on it!

Then she filed it away for later and quickly jogged off to catch up with the others. Soon she found herself standing with them in a straight line in front of Ultra Magnus in what seemed to be some kinda control center or something.

"I cleaned them up as best as I could sir but you know how it is with these grease grunts." Sentinel said.

'Must every word you say about us be a goddamn insult?' Mantis thought, biting her glossa to stop herself from saying something that would just give the arrogant mech more to insult about.

"That will be all, Sentinel Prime." Ultra Magnus said, thankfully cutting Sentinel off before he could make anymore mocking insults.

"We've wasted enough time and valuable resources tracking down these stranglers. So, if it's all the same to you, we'll just retrieve the AllSpark and be on our way." Ultra Magnus said.

Oh.....the AllSpark......

Oh scrap.

Bee, Mantis and Bulkhead glanced at one another, not sure how to spell it out that they technically made the AllSpark- the most powerful artifact in Cybertronian history- go kerblooey and is now....dispersed? Is that what Optimus said happened to it?

"It's complicated." Mantis said.

Ultra Magnus raised an optic ridge. "Then by all means, explain." He said, his tone serious and no-nonsense.

'Oh you know, Megatron put the slagging thing in his frickin spark chamber then OP stabbed him with a key and then it went all glowy and then kerblooey and is now dispersed all over the place.' She thought sarcastically.

"Yeah....uh...fu-funny story. It sorta....." Bee for once didn't have anything to say.

"Blew up!" Bulkhead blurted out.

Mantis facepalmed with one servo while the other pulled her dreads. Oh Bulkhead, you giant innocent honest teddy bear, do you always have to be _that_ honest?!

"What?" Ultra Magnus said, his voice becoming a bit breathless which was probably equivalent to an outcry. "The AllSpark is destroyed?"

The other three weren't bothering to hide their shock either. Jazz and Drift's jaws were dropped wide open and Drift was staring at Mantis as though she was nuts and Sentinel's optics were as wide as dinner plates which Mantis would've made fun of if the situation were very different.

'Welp, bye bye life, it was nice while it lasted.' She thought.

Optimus rushed to try and reword it in a not so all-is-lost way. "Not exactly destroyed...sir." He quickly added. "More like it's energy was uh...dispersed. At least I...I think it was." He tried to explain.

"Oh you made some big time blunders in your day Optimus, but this one tops them all." Sentinel sneered, rubbing it deep into Optimus's face with a wide gleeful twisted smirk as though he enjoyed seeing Optimus make a fool of himself.

Mantis gritted her denta and clenched her servos so tightly, she heard her own plating creak in protest. This arrogant rude oafish Prime was reaaaaaaaaally ticking her off. How dare he?!

"He's a slagging hero for keeping it from Megatron and the Decepticons!" Ratchet snapped. Prime ranking be damned! His ire and disgust towards the oafish big-chinned Prime were already at maximum levels. He won't admit it but he's always felt a small paternal instinct towards Optimus. The young Prime had a long way to go but he's seen the kid come pretty darn far on his own already which spoke volumes!

Optimus was their leader but also their friend and Ratchet knew he would risk his life for him and protect Optimus even against hurtful words.

"Stand down, rustbucket. Your boss is a lotta things but hero isn't one of them." Sentinel sneered, brushing him off.

"Well he's certainly a better bot than you, Chinhead!" Mantis snarled, faceplate almost red with anger at this point. She tried to ignore it but that small ire that tasted sour on her glossa had been pushed to a boiling hot rage she never knew she had in her spark.

All of a sudden all those years of suppressed anger came back. Where were these so called 'Elite' Guards when she and Yoketron needed them, huh? Where were they with their fancy stripes and shiny mods when the Decepticons tore her life apart?! She was burning on the inside as an inferno grew within her and she just wanted to unleash the flames onto this big-chinned bot that was the embodiment of all things she hated about authority.

"You! If you utter one more word, I will throw you into the brig myself, young miss! Is that clear?!" Sentinel snapped at her. "Know your place."

Mantis opened her mouth, no doubt to say more but Prowl grabbed her shoulder.

"That's enough, sister!" he snapped, voice stern. "Don't let him get to you." He whispered to her. They were already on thin ice as it is. 

Mantis pressed her mouth into a thin line, her servos clenching even tighter and trembling at her sides but said no more. Sentinel smirked smugly, taking her silence as cowed compliance.

Then he leaned in close to Optimus's faceplate to further gloat.

"We did a sweep of the entire planet. Not one trace of Decepticon energy signatures!" he sneered.

"That's cuz we kicked their sorry solenoids!" Bee interjected, glaring at the larger bot with all his might. How could he just come swaggering in and treat all of them, especially the Bossbot- yes, Bee does honest to god respect Optimus- like he was nothing more than a malfunction?!

"You expect us to believe that a bunch of glitch detail flunkies could defeat Megatron?" he scoffed with an even wider smug smirk.

Something in Mantis snapped.

"Funny you guys weren't here to help us, huh?" Mantis snarled, stepped forward and standing only a few centimeters away from Sentinel.

"Let's see, we were stuck here on this planet, outnumbered with the most powerful Cybertronian artifact in existence and Decepticons including fragging Megatron were coming to get it. Where were you 'Elite' Guards then, huh?" she asked, looking at all of them with a glare. Then she went on before they could come up with some excuse.

"Oh that's right, you guys were sitting back on Cybertron in your fancy safe fortress doing nothing but argue about politics and lazing on your afts doing paperwork while we risked our skid plates fighting the cons which you bots were supposed to protect us from!" she snapped.

"Watch your tone, miss! Show some respect!" Sentinel snarled.

Mantis barked a humorless laugh. "Is that chin of yours weighing down your processor or do you not have one at all? You expect me to effin respect you after you fragging herded us into a chamber like animals and harassed us and insulted us all every goddamn time you opened your mouth then had the gal to treat Optimus like dirt and you expect me to _FU$KING RESPECT YOU_?!" her voice rose steadily to a shout and the others unknowingly took a step back.

Prowl was getting worried. This was the first time he's ever heard Mantis speak with such rage and hatred that bordered on malice. 

Then Mantis pointed a digit up at Sentinel's chin and the mech actually flinched back a bit like she just held out a knife and boy did it feel _good_.

"Respect is earned, not given. And you have done little to earn mine and you never will! Because as far as I'm concerned, you are nothing but a macho arrogant rude disrespectful excuse of an Autobot who isn't even worthy of calling himself a Prime like Optimus who actually deserves it!

"And if you guys want to call yourselves, 'guards' maybe you all should start acting like it! Instead of trying to pin the blame on us after we've done everything we could considering we were ditched by you all when we needed you to fend for ourselves, you guys should pick your goddamn afts up and actually _do_ something about it!" Mantis said.

Then she finished, her chassis heaving up and down, trying to catch her breath after exploding everything out. Her spark hammered in her spark chamber and her entire being was roaring with indignation but damn it felt so slagging satisfying to get it all out in Sentinel's faceplate.

Said mech's faceplate was priceless. Mantis wished she could've snapped a picture of it. His optics were wide and mouth agape, opening and closing like a guppy fish. It was clear no one has ever spoken to him that way, much less a youngling femme only slightly larger than a minibot.

"That's it! You wanna go you little glitch? Huh?! You wanna go mech to mech?" Sentinel sneered, bending down and sneering at her closely.

Mantis smirked. "Then why not go now? What, scared _Chinhead?"_

"THAT'S IT!" Sentinel reared his fist back.

"No!" Optimus, Prowl and Ratchet moved to intervene but.....

CRACK!

Sentinel's optics nearly bulged out of his faceplate and a high pitched sound that was a mixed between a wheeze and a squeal escaped his voice box as Mantis kicked him as hard as she could right in the place where the sun doesn't shine.

And boy did she enjoy it if the satisfied smirk was anything to go by.

She brought her pede back down just as Sentinel's knees buckled and he pathetically fell down to the floor, clutching his precious manhood. Or what remained of it.

"Oh sh!t!" Drift whooped, using an Earth word he's come to like. He was shamelessly grinning proudly at the display. Yup, same old Mantis.

"This has gone too far!" Ultra Magnus snapped, actually raising his voice now, startling all of them. Even Drift stopped grinning and Mantis's smirk fell off when she realized she may have gone too far.

He gave Mantis a stern look. "Apologize." He ordered.

Mantis crossed her servos over her chassis and held her helm up high. "No." she said defiantly.

"Sister....." Prowl warned. The thin ice was cracking.....

"He deserved it." She snapped. No way was she apologizing to Sentinel when she's pretty sure he owes them just as much if not more.

"Just say I'm sorry and get it over with." Prowl said. "Please. You're only adding fuel to the fire." He added gently.

"Come on, girl. Be the bigger bot." Jazz said gently. His tone wasn't stern or forceful and Mantis found herself unable to say no to both of them.

Then she huffed and looked at Sentinel who had finally gotten back up and was standing there, glaring at her with as much dignity as he could.

"Sorry I'm not sorry." Mantis said with a straight face that looked exactly like Prowls, her voice devoid of any remorse. "There, I said sorry twice."

Bee and Drift had the audacity to snicker and were trying to disguise them as coughs. Ratchet himself was coughing and covering his mouth with a fist to hide a small smirk. Prowl just sighed, not surprised. Optimus was torn between being angry or embarrassed or proud- though a small voice was screaming proud at the moment in his processor- at Mantis and Bulkhead looked back and forth like a deer in headlights.

Then Mantis turned on her heel and walked off, her pedes clacking on the floor.

"Hey! Get back here!" Sentinel called. "You haven't answered our questions!"

Mantis turned around and glared at him. "Call me back when you're ready to _actually_ start asking us questions instead of hurling insults at us. I mean, come on, they're _lame_ how childish can you get? I've seen a sparkling without their core programming utter smarter stuff than you." She sassed, voice back to usual but more haughty and sassy tenfold.

"Ooooooh." Bee and Bulkhead said, egging her on.

"Until then, I rather not deal with your pathetic scrap. I don't want them contaminating my processor." She sneered at him. Then she all but punched the open button and walked out of the room, not even sparing a glance back.

Drift took that opportunity to sneak out to catch up with Mantis and hopefully get some answers. Besides, all the arguing and back and forth debate and explanations were frying his circuits.

Ultra Magnus sighed. "Optimus Prime, please, I believe you are responsible for keeping all members of your crew in line." He said.

"With all due respect, sir. Sentinel was pushing things too far and she has some....issues." Optimus said. A small part of him can't find it in himself to stay mad at Mantis. If anything, a part of him was filled with immense satisfaction at how finally, someone was brave enough to put Sentinel in his place. The stuck up mech was pushing it a bit too far.

"Frankly, I think what Mantis did was long overdue." Ratchet muttered to himself, also proud of the young femme that was willing to verbally slap back Sentinel.

"I'll go get her." Prowl said with a sigh. "Hopefully she's blown off enough steam by now." He muttered to himself.

"Take your time." Bee said, not eager to continue this conversation- particularly if Sentinel was involved.

"Think what Mantis did was right?" Bulkhead whispered to Bee.

"You kidding me? I'm surprised no one else did it a long time ago." Bee whispered back to him.

Jazz on the other hand gazed at the door where Mantis walked out. There was something about that spitfire femme that seemed familiar, something about her feisty sassy spark and that stubborn determination to stand her ground. But he couldn't place his digit on it either.

Meanwhile, Mantis walked through the corridors of the ship, no destination in mind. Then she sighed and leaned back against the wall of an empty narrower hallway, slowly sliding down to sit on the ground.

Man, she felt like so on high like pure adrenaline got coursed through her systems, at the same time so drained. Emotionally, that is.

She didn't know what got over her. She just felt so......angry, angry at all of it, at all the unfairness. It's not like they wanted to disperse the AllSpark, heck they never wanted to have such a responsibility on their shoulders in the first place! And they sure as slag didn't want the Decepticon or Megatron himself to come after them.

"Idiots." She muttered.

"No kidding." She looked up and saw Drift there, digits knitted and placed behind his helm and a satisfied smirk on. "That was quite the show."

"Well someone had to spell it out for Chinhead." Mantis said, scowling at the thought of that arrogant bot.

"Yeah, the guy's a real afthole alright. A glorified grade A one with a chin that is probably illegally huge." Drift snickered.

Mantis couldn't help but snicker with him.

"I take it you two aren't buddies?" she said.

"Don't get the wrong idea. No way am I in cahoots with this crew in anyway. Oh sure, I know Jazz and yeah, we're buddies but trust me, I want nothing to do with the Elite Guard. Never did, never want to." Drift said.

"Then why are you here?" she asked, genuinely curious.

"Still with the questions, huh?" he teased fondly. "Well my circuits were frying from boredom on the moon colony and other than having to finish ungodly amounts of paperwork with zero recharge and barely a solar cycle before the due date, I didn't have much to do. It was way too peaceful and boring and well..." he spread his servos out in a what-can-I-do gesture. "That ain't my style." He said with a knowing grin.

"So when Jazz dropped by to check things and I heard he was gonna go on a trip to another planet I thought- eh, why not? So here I am." Then he dropped the joking façade and turned more serious.

"What I want to know is how you're here." He asked.

"Well......funny story." She said with a nervous laugh while fiddling with a dread.

Drift looked around the empty hallway and slid down to sit beside her. "I think we've got the time and space for it." He said, indicating the empty hallway.

Mantis took a deep vent. "Ok, so......"

She explained everything to him. How on one of her 'errands' she ended up stowing away on the ship and blowing some stuff up- he approved of the last part- and how she got injured trying to escape. How she managed to get into an escape vessel but fell into stasis before she could properly put in the coordinates. Then by fate or chance- Drift was a bit skeptical about that, he was the pragmatic type- she ended up on Earth where she reunited with her brother, Prowl- Drift was glad for that. He knew how the femme held Prowl in high regard and cared for him, Primus knows how relieved and happy she was to discover he was online and well- and stayed on Earth as her new home.

She then gave him a rundown on the foes she's fought, both human and Decepticon. She also told him that no, humans do not spew acidic slime- Meltdown was an exception- and no, they weren't space barnacles. They were sentient beings just like them, had intelligence just like them and emotions both positive and negative just like them.

Drift whistled when she was done.

"Wow, you were definitely occupied while I was gone." He remarked.

"No kidding. Like, one moment everything's either way too boring or way too crazy." Mantis said. "Wait, you're not mad at me?"

Drift shrugged. He slagging just _shrugged_ like he wasn't bothered by this at all!

"Right now, you're online and well and that's what matters most." He said. "You.... _are_ okay, right?"

Mantis gave him a thumbs up.

"Well....Megatron did kinda rip my servo off- calm down, it was days ago!" she quickly said as Drift looked a click away from shouting in horror. "And my servo is right as rain, so is the rest of me."

"Gee, that's so reassuring!" he said sarcastically. Then he decided to acknowledge the more serious side.

"Look Mantis, I'll be honest with you." He said, tone serious. "I'm not one for politics but if what you and your crew back there said is true, these are serious claims. Heck, I wouldn't put it past them to drag you and your crew back to Cybertron to actually stand trial for these claims. Yes, they can and will do that.

"I can see you kicking Decepticon skid plates, in fact I can't see you _not_ doing it." He added with a raise of an optical ridge. "I can back you up on that claim but the AllSpark fiasco? Sorry but you're on your own on that one. My verdict won't do much considering I'm new here on Earth."

"I think that's good enough for me and the others......thank you, Drift." Mantis said sincerely. Until now, even on another planet he still has her back.

"No prob." Drift said clapping her on the shoulder.

"Sister? Where are you?" they started and Mantis realized it was Prowl.

"I'm here, brother!" she called.

"Brother?" Drift asked teasingly.

"What? Jealous?" she asked with a smirk.

Then a slightly exasperated Prowl showed up. He glanced back and forth between Mantis and Drift, his gaze on the latter wary. Drift stood up and dusted himself off. Mantis stood up too to introduce them.

"And he is?" Prowl asked though he already had an inkling.

"Brother, this is Drift. The one who saved me. Drift, this is my brother-Prowl." She said.

Drift smiled amiably and stuck a servo out to shake. "Nice to finally meet the mech Mantis here couldn't stop chatting about all the time."

"Drift!" she whined and elbowed him.

"What? It's true." Drift said, unbashed.

Prowl ignored the flutter his spark did when he realized how high his sister held him to talk about him so much to someone else.

"Nice to meet you too. Though I guess the circumstances could've been better." He said, shaking Drift's servo.

"No kidding. But dayum, she showed that Chinhead good." Then he smiled at Mantis proudly. "10 out of 10 on the talk and an 11 on the kick."

Prowl frowned. "Are you encouraging her brash behavior?" he asked, disapproval in his voice.

Drift rolled his optics. "Aw come on, let her live a little. What, you saying what she did was wrong?"

"It certainly wasn't right." Prowl said and Mantis's expression dropped at the disapproval. Maybe she did go a bit too far back there......

"Then again, I can't say Sentinel was in the right either." Prowl said, his mouth twitching upwards slightly.

Drift laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. "Y'know, I think you and I will get along just fine."

Prowl then turned to Mantis. "You should go back. They're waiting for us to come back to start actually listening to us and ask questions." Prowl said.

"Do I have to?" Mantis whined. She didn't want to see Sentinel. If possible, she rather not see him ever again.

"I need to talk to Drift. Privately." Prowl added firmly, leaving no room for further debate.

"How bout this, Mantis can wait for us in one of the corridors then all three of us can go back together. Sound good?" Drift suggested.

"Sure./ Yes, please." Prowl and Mantis agreed.

Drift clapped his servos. "Great, now I think it's time for some adult talk." He said and glanced meaningfully at Mantis.

She huffed. "Fine." She said then walked off.

The two older mechs waited and even checked to make sure she was a safe distance away before they turned to face each other.

For a moment, it was more of a stare off.

Drift waited..............and was already starting to get bored. When he entered a conversation, he was a bot of action. He'd talk and the other would talk back, that's the kind of conversations he'd rather have. Not the one-sided silent treatment. Thankfully he didn't have to worry as Prowl broke it.

"I........I...." the mech looked a bit nervous and rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm not....good at these kind of things." He said.

"Take your time." Drift said, leaning back against the wall casually.

Then Prowl bowed, startling Drift who suddenly felt awkward.

"Thank you." Prowl said then stood up. "I just want to say thank you."

"Uh...oookay. For?" Drift asked.

"For saving my sister." Prowl said. "She's....talked about you and if it weren't for you, she'd be offline."

Drift waved it off. "I just did what should've been done." He said. "I.....we all owed Master Yoketron that much." he added.

Prowl nodded. "But still, the fact remains that if it weren't for you, my sister would be offline or worse, the Decepticons would've found her instead. You...." He swallowed the lump in his throat and moved on. "You saved Yoketron's legacy."

Drift smiled at him. It was sincere yet sad and empathetic. "We all would've done the same if we switched places. And for what it's worth, I'm glad she came here and found you. She's....happy now, I can see that. She's honest to god happy and I'm just....glad for that." He said.

Prowl smiled then offered his servo out.

"I....I'm not really good at this." He admitted. "But....friends?"

Drift smiled and shook his servo. "Friends, so long as you don't mind letting Mantis roast Chinhead."

"That, I think I can tolerate." Prowl said with a rare smirk.

Then Drift jabbed a thumb at the direction Mantis walked off.

"Now let's grab her and head back before Sentinel blows a fuse and infects us with his virus of incompetence." He said.


	2. The Elite Guard [2]

Mantis, Drift and Prowl stepped back into the room and instantly, all optics were on them- or rather, on Mantis.

Sentinel crossed his servos and scowled at her, as though expecting for something to happen but it didn't. Mantis huffed and decided that she wouldn't give him the satisfaction. All she did was cross her own servos, cock her hip and raised an optic ridge, her face apathetic as she stared back.

Yeah, it was petty and childish but she couldn't care less so sue her.

After a few clicks, Sentinel started to fidget a bit, kinda unsettled by her steely stare and how unmoving she was. The rest of the Autobots watched the stare off with rapt attention, none daring to break the tense silence. Even Bumblebee was uncharacteristically quiet.

Then Sentinel broke the silence by lifting his chin up as though to gain some dignified stature.

"Considering you're still young and new to all this, I understand you may find this overwhelming. So I guess it would lead to you lashing out, a dumb tactic for indiscipline but I guess you were quite taken aback by my authority." He said.

Mantis rolled her optics and scoffed. Oh puh-leeze, if this was his way of 'apologizing' to her, she rather him just get it over with. And as far as she was concerned, his authority is about as high as a protoform in recharge.

"Cut to the chase." She said.

Sentinel narrowed his optics at her. 'Don't push it.' He was warning her.

"So, for once, I'll be kind and let your physical offence slide." Sentinel ended through gritted denta.

Mantis just stared back, faceplate blank and giving nothing away.

'Wow, girl's got a good poker face.' Jazz thought. 'Kinda like.....Yoketron.' then a thought struck him. He narrowed his optics and looked at the femme a bit closer. 'Wait a click.......'

Could she be who he thought it was? But.....it wasn't possible, she was KIA.....right? But.....when he thought of the statistics, maybe it was more on the _MIA_ side. 

Then Mantis smiled- a cold one with no good nature behind it. It seemed like one slapped on for a doll and it was unsettling to say the least.

"Sure." She said simply. Then she looked at Ultra Magnus and this time, she wiped the smile off and took on a slightly more contrite expression. "I'm sorry. I acted out of line and let my anger get the best of me. My issues were no excuse for the trouble. I hope we can move on and cooperate on the problem at hand." She said, tone more serious and sincere now.

Ultra Magnus nodded, glad to have the petty smaller issue resolved.

"Very well. Now, I would like to hear a recount of recent events that have occurred here from each of you, from your own personal perspective. Keep in mind what you say will also be used to defend your claims on the AllSpark." Ultra Magnus said.

And so they did. Each of them recounted from their perspectives and occasionally helped chip in for one another when they accidentally missed a gap.

Ratchet, Bumblebee, Prowl and Mantis had an overall similar answer since the four of them were together at the time. Bulkhead was modest and stuttered a lot- no doubt nervous- but said what needed to be said. Optimus didn't linger on his fight with Megatron either and didn't go too deep into the details- the Prime knew what he went through wasn't pleasant, much less something to boast about- but he did make sure to repeat what he had done to the AllSpark.

Actually when Mantis thought about it, it struck her how faraway it seemed like it was a mere dream she had when really, it was an event she actually lived through only _days_ ago. All of it suddenly seemed so.....unreal at the same time still so reveling.

Sentinel instantly agreed that their story was bogus.

"I'll give you points for creativity on your _bogus_ story, Optimus. But where's your proof?" Sentinel challenged, walking back and forth with his chin held high.

He still had that smug smirk on, so sure of himself that he could win this argument and prove that Optimus was a screw up. Mantis won't admit it, but deep down she's nervous that Sentinel might actually win. All things considered, other than them, they had no actual proof that the AllSpark was still here.

Oh sure, maybe just _maybe_ they could ask human witnesses that saw the fight between them and Megatron or suggest social media but other than seeing Megatron wallop their skid plates, it'd do little else to back up the bigger claim- the AllSpark- for the bigger picture.

"Show me one shred of evidence that the AllSpark wasn't completely destroyed on your watch!" Sentinel went on.

'Still trying to pin the blame on him? Haven't you already done enough of that?!' Mantis thought, her anger once again rearing its ugly head, threatening to explode.

Yeah, she knew. She didn't even need Optimus to spell it out for her. She knew Optimus wasn't a pushover and he'd never let anyone disrespect him just like that to his faceplate or let anyone degrade all of them. Yet, she could see the hurt and betrayal in his optics and something deeper, something older and more personal in his optics with every word that Sentinel uttered towards him.

'Is that chin of yours causing your audio receptors to malfunction?!' Mantis thought, resisting the urge to kick him in the chin this time.

"You have my word." Optimus managed to say with an even tone, though his calmness was evidently forced.

"Ha, and we all know what that's worth, don't we?" Sentinel scoffed.

"Are you doubting his honesty?" Mantis asked.

"Oh please, what good is that if you don't have the ball bearings to back up your actions?" Sentinel asked.

"What good are actions if they're bad ones that harm others?" she shot back. 'And this coming from the mech who never had many ball bearings to begin with!' she managed to retain enough self-control to not say that part out loud.

"Quit trying to play high and mighty hero, and I don't recall asking for your opinion on the definition of honesty." Sentinel sneered. 

"Oh and you know what honesty is?" Mantis challenged. Then she lowered her voice so only him and Optimus could hear. "This coming from the mech who ditched his friend to the dogs when he's just as responsible for a major screw up himself....or should I say he ditched one of them to the _spiders?"_

Sentinel paused, registering her words. When it did his optics widened and he leaned forward to her faceplate, a snarl on his faceplate but she could see the uneasiness behind it.

"I'd watch my back if I were you." He said, threat clear. His digits twitched and for a moment, Mantis half expected him to actually inflict some form of physical roughness.

"Sentinel, leave her alone!" Optimus said, stepping in between them, Prowl beside him.

"I don't know what bad blood there is between you and Optimus but I think it's best for all of us if you leave my sister out of it." Prowl said, but there was a definite edge to his voice that made the hidden threat clear.

Stay away from my sister or I will end you.

"I don't believe it. I knew you had little to no ball bearings but having to have a puny femme stand up for you, Optimus? Wow. And I thought this couldn't get any sadder." Sentinel mocked.

Bulkhead and Bee glanced over at Optimus. They couldn't understand why Optimus was letting this jerk face walk over him like some doormat. It wasn't like the Bossbot they knew at all!

"Come on, Bossbot! Why don't you stand up for yourself?" Bulkhead asked.

Sentinel smirked, his smug one even wider now and oozing with condescendence. "Because he knows his place."

SNAP!

"HOW BOUT I PUT YOU IN YOUR PLACE?!" Bulkhead roared and Mantis could've sworn Bee practically jumped three feet up into the air from shock. Not that she was any better since she almost leaked lubricant herself when she saw her usually quiet gentle giant friend lose it.

Bulkhead roared and charged forward, wrecking ball ready to wipe that degrading smirk off Sentinel's face. The giant bot was enraged at how he's been treating all of them and he's had enough!

Jazz and Drift swiftly intercepted and stopped Sentinel before the Prime could add fuel to the fire- a small part of Mantis was kinda wishing he did actually try to go head to head with Bulkhead though, it'd be nice to see her art BFF punch him to kingdom come.

Meanwhile the rest of them held Bulkhead back with all their might. It rattled them all to see the gentle brawn giant of their team become as intimidating and fearsome as his appearance. Mantis and Bee found themselves uselessly trying to pull him back by his massive servos.

"Bulkhead, no!" Prowl said.

"Whoa, easy big guy!" Bee yelped, trying to calm him down.

"This cyber clown isn't worth it." Ratchet grunted.

Mantis said nothing considering not too long ago she kicked Sentinel in the ball bearings, she didn't want to sound like a hypocrite. Unlike her however, they all knew full well that Bulkhead is more than capable of beating the scrap out of Sentinel without even trying in this enraged state.

Before things could escalate even worse, Ultra Magnus stood up, raised his hammer and slammed the butt down. Hard. Mantis could've sworn she heard something akin to a thunderstorm roaring in the background.

"Stand down, _all_ of you!" he ordered, his steely voice though barely raised reverberated to all of them, snapping them to attention. It did the trick as Bulkhead stopped roaring and trashing like an angry bull. Even Sentinel reigned in some control.

"These are serious charges and they _will_ be investigated." He said, his tone leaving no room for debate. Mantis was glad that his tone made it clear there would be no form of bias in this dilemma.

"Optimus Prime, show us where this supposed Decepticon battle took place. Your crew will remain here with Jazz and Drift until this matter is settled." Ultra Magnus ordered.

"At least we won't be stuck with Chinhead." Mantis whispered to Bee.

He snickered at the name Mantis gave him but quickly smothered it after Optimus gave him a warning look.

"As you know, I scanned some typical Earth vehicles, sir, so we won't attract attention to ourselves." Sentinel said with a salute.

"Good work, Sentinel Prime. Transform!" Ultra Magnus said.

Mantis facepalmed the moment she saw their 'typical Earth vehicles' and groaned.

Typical and won't attract attention her actuator.

Ultra Magnus was a mobile missile command truck- which Mantis had to admit was powerful and badass and awesome but definitely a far cry from normal everyday blend in among humans while Sentinel's was even further off! The guy was a slagging snow plow! A snow plow! It isn't even close to winter anymore!

Judging by the expressions on everybody else's faceplates, she can tell they agree.

"Oh yeah, no one's gonna notice that." Bee said sarcastically.

^^*************^^

Sari felt a weigh lift off her heart and a huge smile came over her face when she finally saw the force field deactivate and the ramp dropped down to reveal Optimus walking down.

"Look! Prime's okay!" she said, relieved.

"It's alright! They're on our side." He reassured them before transforming and driving off, another two vehicles- one a mobile missile command truck and the other a....snow plow?- following him.

Sari and Fanzone hastily stepped away before the snow plow could run over them but Fanzone's car and another police cruiser weren't so lucky.

"That's good cuz I was worried they might, y'know destroy something!" Fanzone said sarcastically, frustrated that once again, his car was busted.

Then Sari realized that none of the others had come out yet.

"Wait! What about the others?!" she quickly ran towards the ship but she wasn't fast enough as the force field reactivated itself, causing her to bonk straight into it with a pained yelp.

"Oh man." She groaned as she rubbed her sore nose.

Meanwhile Optimus was trying to teach Ultra Magnus and Sentinel a few traffic laws. Unfortunately, not to his surprise but much to his exasperation, Sentinel refused to listen to the words of a 'scrub'.

But that exasperation gave way to grim satisfaction when the arrogant bot ended up driving straight off an unfinished highway.

"And that sir is why humans set up barricades." Optimus explained to Ultra Magnus.

"Noted, Optimus Prime." Ultra Magnus said seriously.

^^*************^^

Back on the flagship, the Auto Teens were bored.

"How much longer must we endure this imprisonment?" Bee bemoaned dramatically.

"It's barely been half an hour." Mantis and Prowl deadpanned to him.

"Uh.....wanna play Spy Me?" Bulkhead asked, remembering one of the games Sari told him about to pass time. 

"It's called I Spy. But sure, why not?" Bee asked.

Mantis opted to sit down in one of the corners, away from prying optics, pedes criss-crossed applesauce while she took out her datapad and opted to listen to anime songs. She connected her audio receptors to it so no one else could hear. Scrolling through, she opted for Persona 5- Life Will Change.

She nodded her helm to the music and tapped her digits along to the tune, humming the lyrics under her breath.

"It's not a game. I'm not a robot, AI challenging you~" she sang along. For a moment, she let herself get lost in the lyrics and forget about all the scrap she and the others had to put up with.

And she thought the worst she'd have to put up with today is being Sari's personal assistant/secretary and dealing with paperwork.

"Whatcha listening to?" someone asked.

She yelped and her servo reared back instinctively, ready to strike. She whipped her helm around to see Jazz standing there, servos up and palms outwards in a peaceful gesture.

"Whoa! Sorry bout that. Didn't mean to spook ya!" he said.

Mantis paused the song via her HUD and relaxed.

"It's ok." She said.

Jazz smiled, amiable and easy-going and Mantis found herself liking the guy. He seemed nice to be around with and someone you felt yourself naturally loosening up around.

"I just wanted to ask what your name is. Don't think I got it." He said.

"It's Ma-" then she remembered that although he was a nice bot, this was still an Elite Guard she was talking to and stopped herself. "Why do you wanna know?" she asked suspiciously.

"Hey, if you don't wanna tell me. That's cool." Jazz said, his tone sincere to let her know he won't push.

Mantis felt a bit bad. On one hand, a part of her felt as though Jazz was a dependable bot one could naturally trust. But on the other hand, vorns of distrust and wariness gave birth to a cynical streak she wasn't aware of and she couldn't find it in her to trust the Elite Guard, not yet.

Not until they've proved themselves to her.

"What's that you're listening to?" Jazz asked, quickly changing the subject.

Mantis perked up, glad they could move on. "An anime song." She said.

".....a....aimap song?" Jazz asked, confused.

"No, anime. A-ni-me." Mantis corrected.

Jazz nodded filing it away. "Anime." He repeated correctly this time. "What's that?"

"I think it's easier if you just listen to it." Mantis said, handing it to him. Jazz connected the audio to his audio receptors and listened.

Soon, Mantis saw him nodding his helm and tapping his pede along to the rhythm smoothly as though he's heard it his whole life.

"Wow girl! You got good taste." Jazz said, amazed. "What's this song called again?"

"Life Will Change." Mantis said proudly.

"It new on Cybertron?" Jazz asked.

She shook her helm. "No, it's an Earth song." She said.

He seemed taken aback by this. "It is?" he asked.

"You know, those are humans not space barnacles. They aren't parasites." Mantis said.

Before she could explain to him how horribly wrong and downright stupid Sentinel's description of humans were, an alarm blared.

"What's wrong?" she asked, getting up.

"Stay cool. I'll go check it out. Drift, stay with em." Jazz said before running off.

"Wha-hey!" Drift protested but Jazz was already gone. Just when the ninjabot was about to take a quick recharge too.

".............you guys have to stay with me, right?" he asked the others.

"That's what he said." Ratchet grunted.

"Ok, then let's follow him." Drift said. "I mean, technically he said I just have to stay with you which I'm still gonna do." He said with a shameless smirk.

".........." Ratchet sighed. "Better than hearing Bumblebee complain." He huffed.

^^*************^^

Sari was panicking a little bit. Ok, so maybe she should've thought this plan of hers more thoroughly. She thought it'd be simple. Get in, find her friends, get out and deal with the haywire assembly lines.

What she didn't expect was just how large it really was- it seriously smacked her in the face once she was actually inside it- or that there would be traps.

"Organic contamination alert." Another voice said. It definitely wasn't one of the others.

She panicked as the doors sealed shut to block her exit and the alarms blared to announce her presence. Then she looked forward and saw a bot run towards her before stopping some distance away with a small gasp of surprise.

"Contamination located." He said.

She noted that he wore a cool visor over his optics and what looked like headphones and a flat cap on his head. He also had the Autobot logo like the others except his had stripes on them.

Wait, what did he call her?!

"Who're you calling a contamination?!" she asked indignantly.

"Stay cool and roll back off the ship nice and easy-like." He said as though he were dealing with an unpredictable wild animal. "And don't even think of spewing any of your slime at me!"

"Slime?" Sari asked, baffled. Was this guy who had to be like, 10 times bigger than her scared of her?! "What are you-! Oh, you're afraid of me aren't you?" Maybe she could make this work for her.

She made a grimacing face and waved her hands. "Boo-gah! Boo-gah! Boo-gah!"

She didn't even raise her voice that much but Jazz jumped back, horrified out of his processor. A part of her wanted to laugh at how ridiculously funny this whole scenario was.

Jazz on the other hand wasn't as amused. The poor mech was honest to god getting the slag scared outta him. He expected the slime to come out at any moment now and melt away his circuits!

"What's going on out here?" Ratchet asked as him and the others came to see what the situation was about.

Drift however laughed his helm off when he saw how terrified Jazz was.

"Oh my god- Jazz, wha-what's gotten into you?!" he managed to gasp through his laughs as he doubled over.

"This isn't funny! We got an organic contamination over here!" Jazz said indignantly, pointing to Sari.

That just made Drift laugh harder. Oh to think the cool calm level-headed Jazz would be terrified of a tiny human, he knew he was never gonna let him live it down.

"Guys!" Sari cheered and ran over to hug Bee's pede. Drift respectfully stepped out of her way.

"Stay back! You don't wanna be slimed!" Jazz warned.

"Relax. That's just Sari. She's perfectly safe." Bulkhead said.

"She's our human ally. Helped us learn about Earth customs and how to fit in and all that." Mantis explained as she patted Sari's head fondly.

"But Sentinel...." Jazz began.

"Is a glitch head!" Bee cut off, still ticked off for the disrespect the mech had shown Optimus. "All due respect." He added though Mantis could tell that respect was little.

Surprisingly, Jazz didn't protest. Instead, all fear was replaced with curiosity as he knelt down to get a closer look at Sari, taking in her tanned skin, red hair and orange clothing.

"Crazy...." He said, intrigued as he gently rubbed a digit in her hair, earning a small giggle. "These organics all have their own look, their own style." Then he smiled meaningfully at Mantis. "And they're own slick tunes."

Mantis smiled back, glad that Jazz didn't hold anymore prejudice against organics. He wasn't a bad mech, he just had the misfortune of being around a worse mech with a bad attitude and horrible perspectives. He was pretty open-minded too.

Then Sari got to the serious point at hand.

"I need your help! Something's wrong at one of my dad's assembly plants! Come on!" she said, shaking Bee's pede urgently.

"No can do. I got orders from Ultra Magnus to stick with ya." Jazz said.

"Yeah but he didn't say where." Bee said using a similar loophole Drift used earlier.

"And sides, we Autobots gotta help protect life and all that." Drift said, though Mantis wouldn't be surprised if he was just looking for an excuse to get off this ship.

"Well...." Jazz stroked his chin in thought. "I have been ithchin' to give my new wheels a spin." He transformed and they watched in awe as a vintage yet sleek Pontiac Solstice. "Besides, any species that could come up with a sweet ride like this can't be all bad." He said.

"Cool." Sari oohed in awe.

"Now that's what you call an awesome Earth disguise!" Mantis said, giving him her approval.

"Show off." Drift said to Jazz. Then he grinned. "Guess it's my turn to liven it up a bit!" Then he did a small backflip before transforming into a sleek Ford GT.

"Alt-mode approved." Mantis said giving him a thumbs up.

"Y'know, maybe this planet ain't so bad after all." Drift said as he revved his engines.

The rest of them transformed and together, they drove off towards the assembly line.

^^*************^^

Optimus was very, _very_ close to ditching all form of conscience and just grabbing his axe and using it to bash Sentinel's stupidly large chin into kingdom come!

Sentinel seemed deadset on disrespecting/ insulting/ degrading/ mocking everything and anything on Earth. Not only did he have the gal to ignore Optimus when he tried to explain traffic laws, putting at least a dozen humans at risk- he's nearly run over some of them!- but now he kept swaggering around acting as though he was in control when he wasn't! All he was doing was provoking the slagging problem and causing more problems!

At this rate, his palms were going to have permanent dents with how hard he's clenching them and his denta were very close to bending or snapping off.

At least Ultra Magnus was willing to listen to him and actually try to abide by the traffic laws. Heck, he even tried to get Sentinel to at least respect human customs but the big chinned mech just refused to listen to reason! What made Ultra Magnus promote Sentinel to Prime was beyond Optimus. Even he could tell the Magnus was exasperated by Sentinel's pigheadedness.

Maybe Mantis was right, maybe his huge chin was messing with his processor or something.

Right now, their trip to Dinobot Island was slowly escalating to a disaster because lo and behold, Sentinel thought it would be a good idea to go up to the Dinobots and shout at them to shoo them away. Optimus had warned him that they weren't as primitive as he thought but he didn't listen so Optimus didn't even know why he bothered to try anymore.

Turns out, the Dinobots didn't take kindly to Sentinel's attitude either and promptly transformed into their bi-pedal forms to beat the scrap out of him.

Ultra Magnus however, seemed to have reached the limits of his patience. He lifted his war hammer and slammed the butt down, igniting hundred of volts of electricity to fill the air around the Dinobots as though they were trapped by a thunderstorm meant for them specifically. The lightning show thankfully put an end to the conflict and managed to scare the Dinobots to retreat back into the bushes.

"What kind of screw-loose planet is this?!" Sentinel gasped.

'Welcome to this repair bot's daily life now.' Optimus thought sarcastically.

^^************^^

At the same moment, the other Autobots arrived at the Sumdac Plant.

Mantis was surprised at how smoothly Jazz managed to pick up the human customs and fit in. He turned out to actually be a lot more open-minded than his co-workers and didn't mind being vocal about it.

More than once, he's asked curious questions about all kinds of stuff- the other sweet rides that caught his interest, the occasional fashion choice and even the music and video games. He did it all with a mellow yet upbeat rhythm to his character.

Again, it reminded Mantis of someone she _still_ couldn't recall!

Drift was more reserved but he didn't seem to be scared or disgusted by any human customs. Other than occasionally complaining for having to wait at a red light- Bee related to that one- and the occasional baffled question about human organic customs- yeah, humans sometimes have really crazy hairstyles and no, the dogs are naturally furry and do not have an infestation- he too managed to adapt pretty well. He seemed to like his new wheels too.

"Man, that was some funky colored blinking light show! What'd you call those things again?" Jazz asked as they drove in.

"Traffic lights?" Bulkhead and Mantis supplied.

"Traffic lights..." Jazz repeated. "Solid."

The moment Sari stepped out of Bee, her AllSpark key went crazy. It glowed and shone what had to be the biggest light towards the assembly plant like a beacon.

"That can't be good." Sari said.

They all looked at the doorway, stances tense and ready to jump into action, optics scanning for what the possible danger may be.

Then the rapid peppering clash of bullets on metal filled resonated to their audio receptors. The ground shook as though thousands of feet of soldiers were marching towards them.

"Get down!" Prowl, Jazz and Mantis said as though at the same moment, all of their 'sixth sense' blared to warn them of danger. They all crouched down to prevent themselves from becoming open targets in the line of fire.

Then the doors exploded open and soon, a swarm- a practical _army_ of police-bots, all with their guns primed and aimed to fire at them, came out like a swarm of locusts.

Sari threw her body down, hands over her head while Bee used one of his servos to further shield her from potential harm.

"I-I've changed my mind! I don't wanna run my dad's company anymore!" she yelped.

"You want some of us, tin can? Bring it!" Drift said, unsheathing his falchion sword. He jumped forward and used it to deflect the shots away from them or even right back at the bots themselves. Drift brought his sword down to slash through a police-bot that got too close and kicked another away before back-flipping to avoid fire.

Bulkhead did what he did best- smash. He swung his wrecking ball and smashed again and again but they just kept coming. If one went down, two more were quick to come in and fill the gap.

"It's no good! These things are rolling off the assembly line faster than I can smash em!" he said.

"On the bright side, we've really managed to speed up manufacturing productivity." Mantis said as she took cover with Prowl behind a stack of crates.

Bumblebee scooped Sari up and carried her behind some other crates for cover. Drift deflected some shots before rolling behind similar crates to catch his breath. Jazz was taking cover behind it too.

"Is it always like this on this crazy planet?" Jazz and Drift asked Prowl and Mantis.

"Pretty much./ In a nutshell." They replied.

"Well life here's certainly never dull." Drift mused.

Ratchet, noticing they were slowly getting overwhelmed commed for backup.

"Prime! We're at the Sumdac Robot Plant and we're gonna need backup!" he said.

"Copy that, Ratchet. I'm on my way." Optimus replied from the other end.

They did their best to contain the situation and stall until reinforcements came. Ratchet used his magnets to crush the drones into scrap; Bee used his speed and small size to run circles around the police-bots and swiftly shock them offline with his stingers; Bulkhead swung his wrecking ball and smashed them into dented husks of metal and Drift's sword swung, stabbed and slashed the police-bots into pieces.

"You know-" Drift said to Mantis-who was also fending against the drones nearby-as he stabbed two drones in one stab. "this place ain't so bad!" He slashed another in half and deflected the shots that its kin fired at him. "good wheels-" SLASH! "good action-" he used the flat of his blade to smack another away. "I might consider coming here for another getaway!" he jumped back and landed back to back with Mantis.

"It's all part of the package." She said. Then she raised her pede up and brought it down on a police-bot in an axe-kick before kicking the same bot like a soccer ball into another one of its own, causing them to crash into one another and fall down.

"Bulkhead, behind you!" Prowl warned.

Before the bots who snuck behind Bulkhead could ambush him, Prowl intervened, using Metallikato and his shurikens to swiftly slice the police-bots into bits.

"Show off." Mantis said when she saw it.

"Whoa." Jazz said, impressed. "The classic Metallikato Five Servos of Doom attack." Who would've thought a crew of repair bots would have a Cyberninja on their team?

Then Jazz smirked. "But have ya seen this one?" he asked.

Mantis and Prowl watched in awe as a pair of laser nunchaku came out of Jazz's forearm gauntlets which he used to swiftly incapacitate one police-bot after another in one swift row. His servos blended with his laser nunchaku into a blue and white blurr, moving faster than the optic could see.

"Im....pressive." Prowl managed to choke out.

"Guess you never got that far on your Cyberninja training." Jazz said before zooming off.

"He's a Cyberninja too?!" Mantis asked Drift.

"Oh no, he carries those laser nunchaku for kicks....of course he's a Cyberninja!" Drift said. Then they both grunted as more shots rained down on them.

With a flick of her wrists, both of Mantis's tessens snapped open and she twirled on the spot like a tornado, the tessens deflecting away all the shots and sending them flying back towards the police-bots.

Then she pivoted on the spot while crouching low, reared her servo back under her armpit and threw it. It spun through the air in an arc, swiftly slicing through a good few police-bots before coming back to her.

"Show off." Drift huffed though deep down, he was rather impressed and proud at the display.

Then he jerked as another tessen sailed past him and buried itself in a police-bot that snuck up on him. Mantis walked over and yanked her tessen back.

"I had that covered." Drift said, trying to retain some dignity.

"Sure you did." Mantis droned dryly before dashing off to help the others.

Jazz glanced over to check on Drift and once again, surprise struck as he saw the young femme execute a Mueiyaku technique almost perfectly like a natural. Her pedes lashed out again and again like a viper's tongue, slamming into police-bots and kicking them away with a strength that belied her petite frame, one after another, whichever one that had the misfortune of getting within her range.

'Mueiyaku.' Jazz recognized the fighting style she was using weren't simple kicks of brute strength. 'Only Yoketron could've possibly known that technique to teach someone.......' He looked at her and analyzed. He observed the way she moved, the way she fought, the spark in her optics behind her shades.

'Holy Primus......' Jazz thought. He couldn't believe it.

"Jazz! Look out!" Mantis cried.

Thankfully, eons of well-honed reflexes warned Jazz of the incoming bots. He brought his nunchaku down on it, promptly crushing it.

"Thanks!" he called out to her. 'Later. Focus on the situation at hand.' he chided himself.

Mantis gave him a brief smile before jumping back into the fight.

"I think we could use those reinforcements now!" Drift said. His sword was swinging up down, left, right, forming a blurred streak to others optics as he sliced away at bots but no matter what swordsmanship he used, it was pointless as the police-bots just kept coming!

Then as though heeding his call, an axe flew through the air, tearing through the police-bots armor.

"Mind if I cut in?" Optimus asked as he caught his axe.

Prowl- who had been knocked down by the drones, surrounded and almost finished for- gave him a grateful smile as the Prime helped him back onto his pedes.

"Bout time!" Drift huffed.

"Better late than never." Mantis said with a grin.

"Optimus Prime, behind you!" Optimus whipped his helm around to see Ultra Magnus running over two police-bots that tried to ambush him before transforming back.

"Thanks, commander." Optimus said.

Soon, both Ultra Magnus and Sentinel were surrounded by police-bots. Then Sentinel saw Sari running from the bots, trying to avoid getting caught in the crossfire and activated his shield, cloaking him and Ultra Magnus in a force field.

"We should return to the ship, sir. Every moment we're out here we risk organic contamination!" Sentinel said, deciding it was better to focus on keeping him and Ultra Magnus in his shield and leave a little girl to fend for herself.

"Sari!" Mantis cried in horror when she saw Sari out in the open, cut off by Sentinel's force field.

She skated forward and managed to scoop Sari up just as a barrage of bullets rained at the spot she was clicks ago.

Mantis cupped Sari in her palm and took cover behind some crates. "What the hell are you thinking?!" she yelled at Sentinel. "If you wanna run like a coward, do it yourself!" she snarled, disgusted by Sentinel's actions.

Was he seriously ignoring the situation as a whole over one tiny harmless little girl who wanted to help?! They were in a slagging shoot out right now for Primus's sake! And how could he just leave Sari out there by herself in the crossfire?! She may not be some glass doll but she sure as frag didn't have armor plating to protect her now, did she?!

"We have to prioritize the commander's safety!" Sentinel snapped.

"I'm pretty sure he can protect himself and I doubt _you_ could protect a recharging cybercat!" she snapped back.

"It's no use! No matter how many we destroy, they just keep coming!" Ratchet said.

"Then we need to shut down that assembly line!" Optimus ordered decisively, having already analyzed the situation. If they took down the main source of it all, they end it all.

"I'll do it!" they looked up to see Sari running over with Mantis to cover her back. "With my key. As long as this company's name is Sumdac, it's _my_ responsibility!"

"Ok." Optimus agreed with a reluctant nod, knowing they couldn't do this without her key. "Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Mantis, Ratchet, keep the drones busy out here! Prowl, you and I will sneak Sari inside through the loading dock."

With that said, they transformed and drove off.

"Mind if I join you?" Jazz asked, tagging along.

The trio of Autobots plus their human ally raced through the loading dock until they arrived at the main assembly line. Unfortunately the moment they stepped, a few police-bots filed in from both entry and exit points, trying to stop them.

"Go! We'll hold em off here!" Jazz said and spun his nunchakus to form a shield that deflected the shots fired from the drones while Prowl sliced them cleanly through with his shuriken.

"Use the key! Hurry!" Optimus said as Sari dropped down from him.

Sari didn't waste time and walked over to the control panel. She jammed her key inside and soon, the machinery powered down and the drones were left incomplete and unable to function on the assembly line.

"And _that_ is why the company name is Sumdac!" Sari said proudly.

Outside, Ultra Magnus decided that it was time to end this.

"Autobots! Disengage and retreat!" he ordered.

Drift's optics widened as he realized what the Magnus was about to do.

"Get outta the way!" he warned the others. He knocked another drone out of the way and quickly pulled Mantis- who was in potential range for Ultra Magnus's attack- away.

The air crackled like static as electricity sparked, thunderclouds looming over and covering the bright blue sky as the war hammer summoned every particle of potential electricity in the air. Then a single bolt struck the hammer before spreading out like a cage and fried every single remaining drone swiftly, leaving them as nothing but smoking husks of offlined demolished metal.

"Whoa." Bee breathed out, in awe of the Magnus's powers. "Now I get why they call you _Ultra_ Magnus."

Sentinel took that opportunity to go after the academy washout that thought he was a hero and put him in his place once and for all.

Unfortunately, the problem wasn't over yet. This was evident as Sari braced her foot against the control panel and tried to pull her key out with all her might to no avail.

"My key, it's stuck! I can't get it out!" she said. The panel was powering up at a worryingly rapid speed and starting to glow in a way Optimus knew couldn't be good.

"That panel's gonna overload!" Optimus said. 'And it might take us with it!' he's been on the end of the AllSpark power enough times to know just how powerful one blast alone can be.

Then Sentinel shoved him out of the way. Optimus felt his worry soon make way for annoyance and something else.

Anger.

"I think you've done enough, Optimus. I'll make sure you're tried for high treason for destroying the AllSpark. Now come with me!" he snapped, grabbing his forearm.

Optimus has had it. Sentinel was right- he was an academy washout and yeah, he was a failure and a screw up at times but there's one thing he's _not_.....

_"Come on, Bossbot! Why don't you stand up for yourself?" Bulkhead asked._

It's a pushover. And if Sentinel still thought he knew how things worked on _his_ turf, he was dead wrong.

"No!" Optimus said firmly, standing his ground.

"That wasn't a request! That was a direct order, Optimus!" Sentinel snapped back.

"It's Optimus _Prime!_ I may be an Elite Guard washout and a glitch detail flunky, but last time I checked, you and I still have _equal_ rank." Optimus shot back.

"So, Sentinel Prime, take your order and your condescending attitude and stick it in your hard drive! You're on _my_ turf now!" he went on as he shoved Sentinel off and jabbed the mech in the chassis to emphasize his last point. Suddenly, he understood why Mantis did what she did because Primus, it felt _good_ to finally verbally slap back at the arrogant mech Optimus couldn't believe he once called his friend.

Then he swung his axe and sliced the control panel in half, finally dislodging Sari's key from the slot and with it a small luminous blue crystalline shard.

"A little warning next time?" Sari asked as Optimus's swing also knocked her off onto her behind on the floor.

"What was that?" Sentinel asked, genuinely baffled.

Optimus bent down and gingerly picked up the crystalline shard, holding it between his two digits. In between his digits, he could've sworn he felt the small shard thrum with power.

"Your proof." Optimus said and for once, he allowed a hint of smugness to seep into his voice.

^^*************^^

Optimus passed Ultra Magnus the AllSpark fragment they found so that he could see the proof for himself. He stared at it critically, evidently weighing its authenticity.

"Definitely appears to be a fragment of the AllSpark. Apparently your story about dispersing it may not be so far-fetched after all." Ultra Magnus said.

They all felt a wave of relief come over them, especially Optimus.

Sentinel was quick to protest. "But sir! You can't believe that! He's a lying, insubordinate crankshaft!" he said.

To say Sentinel was upset would be an understatement. Mantis could tell the mech was furious over how Optimus-whom in his optics was nothing more than a lowly repair bot/academy washout glitch-head could one-up him in one day.

"True, he may be a little rough around the edges...but in the heat of battle, Optimus Prime exhibited the qualities of a true leader. Strategic thinking, determination and above all, loyalty." Ultra Magnus said as he gazed at Optimus's crew, one by one to convey his sincerity. Then his gaze went to Optimus who Mantis could've sworn was warmer and......softer? Maybe it's cuz he was proud.

Optimus for his part was humble as ever, though he was trying his best not to blush from all the praise he was getting. He never thought he'd hear anyone say words like that to him- much less Ultra Magnus who told him himself that he wasn't programmed to be a hero.

"Something _you_ could stand to learn a thing or two about, Sentinel Prime." Ultra Magnus added coldly, his optics narrowing a bit at Sentinel to drive the point home.

Sentinel seemed taken aback, obviously not picturing it to go this way. Mantis couldn't help but smirk smugly as he trudged off with Ultra Magnus, evidently sulking. Mantis, Bee, Bulkhead and Sari shamelessly poked their tongues/glossa out at him behind his back.

Drift chuckled and clapped a servo on her shoulder.

"This trip went way better than I imagined!" he said with a grin. "I got to see my young charge healthy and well, I got to see her utterly roast that chinhead, I got to see said chinhead get kicked right in the place where-"

"Drift...." Prowl said warningly.

Drift waved him off. "Right, right. Where was I? Oh right- I got to see you verbally and physically kick his ball bearings, got new wheels, learned new things, see new sights and to top it all off- a good fight! I can see why you like it here now." But as he said that, he gave Prowl a meaningful look.

"You know.....we could always use an extra servo around here." Mantis offered.

Then Drift chuckled sadly and shook his helm. "Sorry, kid. Duty calls. Dai Atlas needs me back on Cybertron.....and your team needs you, especially your brother." He said the last part in a lowered tone.

Mantis smiled and shook his servo. Drift couldn't help but realize how that gesture alone made her suddenly look mature.

'She's come a long way from the small femme I found....' He mused. 'She's grown......she's grown a lot, Master Yoketron.'

Jazz for his part stared at them with an unreadable expression. It looked as though he wanted to say something but couldn't find it in him to actually do it. Instead he smiled and walked over to shake servos with Prowl.

"Those were some sweet moves you and your lil sis whipped out back there." He said.

Prowl smiled but there was a hint of sadness in it. "We had a good teacher."

Jazz nodded but it was absentmindedly as he snuck a glance at Mantis one more time.

"I can tell." He said. "Here." He pressed a comm link into Prowl's servo. "So we can keep in touch." Jazz knew that he certainly would to get some questions settled.

Unbeknownst to the two mechs, Drift passed his own comm link to Mantis as well.

"So you can give me a heads up the next time you stowaway to another planet." He said with a playful wink.

Then the others each gave the two cyberninjas their own goodbyes and thank yous before they left.

As soon as they did, Sari looked around and only then did it struck her how much of a mess they all made at the plant. Pieces of twisted scrap and demolished smoking metal were scattered all over the place where the smoking husks of the police-bots didn't. The doors were busted down, some crates were smashed and there were bullet holes peppering god knows how many surfaces.

"How am I gonna explain this to Mr. Powell?" she asked, sadly.

At that, Mantis and Bee's spirits went downhill as they remembered the next battle they'd have to deal with.

Paperwork.

^^*************^^

By the time Bee, Mantis and Sari made it back to Sumdac Tower, the sun was setting casting the sky in an orange radiance. The three of them soon reached the doors to Sari's office but much to their surprise, it was locked and denied Sari access to enter.

"Hey, why is my office locked?" she asked, banging on the door.

Mantis frowned. Perhaps it was a malfunction? Maybe they could call someone up here to fix it.

Before she could suggest that, the screen on the side of the door that was part of the entry panel flickered on and Powell's face showed up.

"Ms. Sumdac. I regret to inform you that your services will no longer be acquired." He said, not sounding regretful at all.

"No longer acquired?!" Bee and Mantis said as the words registered.

"Are you firing her?! Is he firing her? Can he do that?!" Bee whisper shouted to Mantis.

"I don't know." Mantis said, shocked at the quick turn of events. She wondered if this was some underhanded tactic Powell was trying to do to get Sari to give up.

"The board has unanimously elected me to take over as CEO of Sumdac Systems." Powell went on, this time allowing himself to look a bit smug.

"But Sari's the boss! How can you just fire her?" Mantis protested.

"Because the vote of the board says so. If the individual isn't in the center of the drama does not own any controlling share of the company, there's nothing they can do about it." Powell explained.

"You can't do that! It's still my family's company!" Sari protested. What did he mean 'does not own any controlling share of the company' this _was her_ company, it was her frickin family's name!

"Is it? I took the liberty of doing some research into your claim. It might interest you to know there is no will, no birth certificate, no adoption papers, social security number or any kind of record whatsoever of a Sari Sumdac." He said, taking out the physical sheet of the results as further proof.

Sure enough the bold capital words of NO DATA were written there for all of them to see.

"Are you saying I can't prove I'm Isaac Sumdac's daughter?" Sari asked, her voice starting to shake.

"I'm saying you can't even prove you exist." Powell emphasized.

'What?!' they all thought as it sunk in.

Sari.............Sari couldn't prove she was the daughter of Isaac Sumdac.....she couldn't even prove she _slagging existed._

"How can you say that?! Sari's right here!" Bee said, gesturing to the shell-shocked Sari. "So what if some...fancy-schmancy papers for her got lost?!"

"She didn't lose them, she doesn't have them. She never did." Powell scoffed.

"That doesn't-!" before Mantis could argue further, he cut off the call.

Leaving two Autobot younglings and one human little girl who just got her world shaken and crumbled away in one day, all of them left terrified for the lack of certainty they had for the unsure future ahead.

Said little girl just learned that in all legal terms, she didn't exist for the past 8 years of her life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi readers. So, in case you're wondering why Drift's alt-mode is a Ford GT which is a far cry from the Bugatti his Bayverse counterpart used is cuz unlike his counterpart, TFA Drift has a much sleeker body with sharper angles, it's canon that his body is the same as Blurr. So one quick Google for sleek cars later and boom! Ford GT. And yeah, he's an uncle figure to Mantis.   
> Jazz however doesn't know that and due to that fact that none of them had said Mantis's name in front of him out loud for him to remember, Jazz still doesn't know it. But what Jazz is suspicious of is how Drift is genuinely close to Mantis. Not many bots are close to him like that.


	3. Past Grudges

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mantis and Optimus ask one another about past grudges.

If Mantis had to describe how she felt at the moment, it was done. She was so very done with life. Is this what Ratchet felt like all the time? Is that why he's so gruff and grouchy and cranky? If so, she can't blame him.

Life seemed pit-bent on throwing Sari curveball after curveball, each one rattling the little girl's world. Not only is her father missing but in one day, she had to become CEO of his business empire only to lose it and find out she never had any proof that she was her father's daughter.

She didn't even have proof that she existed.

Mantis sighed. This is why she hates paperwork. She wasn't the type who liked to watch how things played out. If something could be done, she'll do it if it helps. And right now, there was nothing she or the others could do to help Sari because this legal human stuff was way out of their expertise.

The only bright side is that Powell is 'kind' enough to give Sari a 3 days head start to find a place to stay, pack her stuff and so on. The former was almost impossible since Isaac Sumdac never had many close friends he could trust or any listed family members they could contact to help. Thus, Sari would soon be moving in to stay with them for the time being. On the bright side, the 3 day head start gave them time to set up one of the empty rooms for her.

"Stupid sleazy greedy arrogant rude slagging bastards." She muttered under her breath. First Sentinel and now Powell. Two jerks in a row in one day, wow.

Mantis also knew she was just saying all that as a cover up. Seeing all the scrap Sari had to go through made Mantis realize just how many things she had in common with her human friend now. She felt a deep sense of empathy and sympathy for Sari. No one deserved to have their world yanked away like a rug from under their feet. It was clear Sari might never be the same again but still, Mantis will be damned if she left her to pick up the pieces herself.

Mantis was jolted out of her stupor when she bumped into someone. She glanced up and saw it was Optimus who seemed quite deep in thought himself.

"Sorry, OP." she apologized.

Optimus shook his helm. "No, it's fine. I was.....distracted."

"You and me both." Mantis said.

Optimus smiled and was about to walk off but Mantis stopped him. She had one question on her processor and she knew only Optimus could confirm it for her.

"Wait!" she called. Optimus turned around and looked at her, imploring her to continue. "I need to ask you something."

"Sure, what is it?." He asked.

Mantis hesitated and shuffled her pede nervously, knowing what she was about to ask was personal.

"Can we.....do it somewhere more private?" she asked.

Optimus's face softened. "Sure."

And so they found themselves in Mantis's room. Optimus couldn't help but note with a small sense of satisfaction that Mantis's room was overall neat. 

"So, what's the question?" he asked.

Mantis decided to bite the bullet. "Was Sentinel that old friend you mentioned? The one that pulled you and Eli-Blackairachnia into......" she trailed off, unsure if she should continue.

Optimus for his part looked vaguely surprised before something else took place, sadness. He sighed and sat down beside her.

".....yeah. It's him." He confirmed. Once again, her deduction was too fast and wit too sharp for him to keep up with. 

"How could someone like you be friends with a grade A afthole like that?!" Mantis asked, applauded. Moments like these, she questions Optimus's choices when it comes to relationships.

Optimus looked a bit hurt at that.

"Sorry." Mantis quickly backpedalled. "It's just...you're you and he's him. I can't see you two ever getting along."

He sighed and his shoulders slumped. His helm was hung low, casting a shadow over his optics, giving him an even more depressed weary and utterly _torn_ look.

"............I'll shut up now." She said meekly.

"No." Optimus reassured her. "It's ok. You were bound to connect the dots after everything I told you. So let me get it out as quickly and painlessly as possible. You deserve to know so it's alright."

"Ok. Take your time." Mantis said.

Optimus closed his optics and when he opened them, they seemed to faraway yet they were oceans of sadness and grief. Mantis was surprised there was no anger or hatred or any shred of annoyance towards Sentinel in there.

"Things.....weren't always like this between us." Optimus began. "Back in our academy days....we were friends. Close friends. He was like a brother to me, believe it or not."

Mantis had a _very_ hard time believing that.

"Then the spider planet thing happened and....I took the blame for it because well, like I told you before, I was the senior cadet, it was my responsibility and I messed up.

"After that well......things got...tense. He....he cut off all ties with me and....and I knew things were too.....too raw after everything. There wasn't any point in fixing something like that- something Sentinel clearly doesn't want anymore. So......" Optimus spread his servos out. "Here we are."

"For the record, I still hate him." Mantis said.

"I can't blame you for that, I guess. Even back in our academy days, he was always........bold, reckless, wanting to prove himself. But he wasn't as bad as he is now. Give him time. Please understand that his fear of organics is justified after what he went through." He said.

"How can you still defend him after he treated you like dirt?!" she asked, applauded. "And it's not like he was the one who dealt with the brunt of the consequences is it? Oh no, he's still got the fancy Elite Guard stripes, the oh so mighty title of Prime and he's probably got a safe secure roof over his helm and high-grade energon on the table for him every damn day!"

Optimus this time, said nothing but look at her, his optics seeming to stare into her soul.

"......Mantis, do you hate the Elite Guard?" he asked. He wouldn't put it past her to do so. And if there's anything life has taught him so far, it's that anything can be liked or respected as much as society wants but there will always be another fraction that hates it. That's just the way things like these worked. Optimus wasn't blind. He knew the Autobot society had it's flaws and was admittedly a bit biased at times- the caste system implemented in the past was proof of that.

Mantis paused and thought about it. Did she hate them? 

"I.......can't say I like them." She began. "And after seeing what Sentinel is like, I can't say I respect them that much either."

"I can relate to the last part." Optimus said. "He made it clear he shares the same sentiments."

"I thought you cared for him?" she asked.

"I...I still do but....." Optimus rubbed the back of his neck. "Look, things between the two of us are....rocky, ok? It's complicated and frankly, I'm not that surprised by how he treated me." He seemed so tired after saying that, older even as though the recent events aged him.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to be a glitch." Mantis said. Optimus probably had enough issues to deal with after another ghost from his past came back to him. Now he had to put up with the vent of a youngling femme with issues.

"Maybe you can tell me why." He suggested.

"............I wouldn't say I _hate_ the Elite Guard, hate is too overkill. I'm.....I think I'd say I'm _upset_ at them, _disappointed_ at them." She said. She looked over at Optimus and saw him patiently waiting for her to continue.

"When I was young, the Elite Guard they...they weren't there for me when my sire and I needed them most; there weren't there when brother and I needed them and they weren't there after the scrap I went through.

"I was caught in the crossfire when a group of Decepticons attacked my home." She clarified.

Optimus's optics widened in shock. Mantis was an actual victim to the Decepticons? 

"I was....I was so scared, I was terrified. Brother had gone on his optic's quest- don't ask- and with everything moving so fast we never had the chance to even let him know what was going on. My sire......" she blinked away the tears as the hard part came. "My sire was _killed_ in that attack. He bought me time to escape and I did and....and...." a choked sob escaped.

"The Elite Guard never came! By the time they did it was too late. Where were they before then? Where were they when we needed them?! My sire was a hero and after everything he helped them with, they weren't there to help him!

"I became an orphan in the blink of an optic and if it weren't for Drift, I would've been left to fend for myself on the streets. Hell, I almost fragging went offline! I laid low and went Neutral, I changed my designation even just to be safe. And all the while, the 'Elite' Guard didn't even bother to keep trying and just wrote me off as offline too." She ended bitterly.

Optimus was.........shocked. Actually no words could describe how sorry he felt for the young femme before him. It made sense now why she was so bitter and disrespectful towards the Elite Guard.

"I hate abuse, Optimus." Mantis went on. "Emotional, physical, verbal, domestic, and worst of all abuse of power and authority. And Chinhead is the walking living embodiment of the last ones." She spat.

She brought a servo up to quickly brush away the tears before they could fall from her outburst. This was the first time in a long time she's ever confided in anyone other than Prowl or Drift about her past.

"I....." Optimus paused. He didn't know what he could possibly say to make things better. Then he decided he wouldn't try to pretend doing something he can't, that'd just rub salt into the wound.

"I can't say I know what that's like." He said, slowly picking his words. "I know what it's like to have family taken away and have the people you thought you could trust turn their backs on you. But....I can't imagine how much more painful it'd be for someone so young. I won't berate you for your perspective towards the Elite Guard." He said, startling her. Obviously she wasn't expecting that.

"We all have issues. All of us have our fair share of inner ghosts and sometimes....it just takes time to get rid of them. So take your time, and please, know this." He placed a gentle servo on her shoulder. "You don't have to deal with it alone.

"Instead of lashing out, talk to someone. Talk to me, Prowl or even Ratchet- trust me, he gives good advice under all that gruffness. And try not to let the past stop you from seeing things at a different angle. Take Jazz for example- he's an Elite Guard but he wasn't so bad, was he?"

"True." Mantis admitted.

Optimus smiled at her. "Thank you for trusting me with this, Mantis."

She smiled back. "Thank you for putting up with my issues."

"That's what friends are for." He said.

Mantis smiled back, warmth spreading through her. Not the first time, she wished Optimus could've had the chance to show other bots like Sentinel what a true Prime was. Optimus strived to be a good leader but he also strived to be a good friend.

And Mantis was proud to know that he considers her a friend too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will mostly consist of events transpiring through Jazz's perspective.


	4. Cyberninja Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Four Cyberninjas reunite to solve some past demons that should've been exorcised long ago.

Contrary to what many believe, Jazz wasn't just another soldier who follows orders and executes said orders. Yes, he respects his superiors and yes, he knows when to obey orders.

But that doesn't mean he wasn't an independent thinker.

He'll admit that compared to his co-workers, he's more lax and has no qualms about exploiting a loophole or two to get things done. If you bend the right rules, they can easily be straightened out afterwards, no fuss, no bust. Jazz doesn't mind befriending bots outside of work- have they be lower rank members of the Elite Guard or even normal civilians of the Autobot Commonwealth. Befriending others helped him learn how to adapt, how to adjust his tune to more or less sync with the wavelength of a different.

He also knows he's made some mistakes in life. He too was responsible for failures that he'll carry to his grave.

One of his biggest failures of course, is failing Master Yoketron.

Yes, Jazz will admit that for all his credentials, he let down the mech that mattered to him most when he needed it most. He was so caught up in work- tying up loose Decepticon ends and grieving over the loss of other comrades- that he forgot about the one thing he was responsible for protecting above all.

Family.

By the time he got there, it was too late. The dojo- the place he once warmly called his home- was destroyed. There were no survivors, it was a massacre. Yoketron's spark had long since faded along with any hope of his legacy living on.

Or so Jazz thought.

He _knew._ He's always known and he's remembered. He could still more or less recall the memories he spent with a small sparkling- a femme so small, so innocent yet so full of life- while under the tutelage of the benevolent mech he came to see as his sire.

She was Yoketron's adopted daughter.

She was someone who once wriggled into his life and proclaimed herself his sister.

Jazz always pictured her as the petite- _tiny_ really- minibot that barely reached past his knees, yet deep down he knew that by now time would've molded her into a mature femme. That is, if she was still online.

She hadn't been there when they scoured the place for survivors. Needless to say, it didn't take long for them to write her off as gone too.

When Jazz learned of that, for once he was _very_ against the decision made by his superiors. There was no body to prove that she was offline but there wasn't any proof to show she was alive either.

He tried- Primus, he tried. He tried to carry out the investigation himself but there was only so much he could do with what little he had to work with. Each time he thought maybe he was onto something, it led to one dead end after the next.

After some time, he was ashamed to admit that slowly.....he gave up.

What little he could find out about was that Yoketron had taken in one last student before his passing. Unfortunately, data on said last student was almost non-existent and no bust of him was left behind.

The only reason they knew Yoketron took in one last student was thanks to Warpath who vaguely recalled dragging a mech who had tried to not actively take part in the war to the dojo. Unfortunately, the brutish Autobot had suffered a severe head injury that jammed some of his memory logs so he could provide little much other than that.

It only made Jazz realize that he failed not one, not two but _three_ bots.

He would've looked deeper into the matter but it was out of his hands. Sometimes, Jazz would stare at the datapads where he knew all his efforts were buried into only to shove them away with some half-baked excuse that there were more important things to do when really, he knew the truth.

He was scared.

He was guilty.

He was ashamed.

Fast forward to a few vorns later and he found himself coming to Earth to investigate a possible Decepticon uprising and a huge AllSpark fiasco mess.

And cue Optimus's crew.

Jazz had to admit, Optimus really had a ragtag crew. There was the young hyper yellow minibot with spunk- Bumblebee; the big yet gentle but still intimidating when he wants to be Bulkhead; the medic Ratchet who appeared to be the oldest and their leader- Optimus Prime who seemed to have some kinda personal past beef with Sentinel.

This brings him to the last two members that have been nagging his processor since he's laid his optics on them- Prowl and the femme.

Prowl at first made it clear he was the strong silent type. He was introverted and seemed to prefer to keep to himself, but Jazz didn't miss the warmth and love in his optics whenever he was around the younger femme. There was that....familial bond between them.

Said femme had one helluva feisty bold spark in her. Despite her petite frame, she didn't hesitate squaring off against Sentinel with a razor-sharp glossa, iron-hot words that went straight through armor plating, steely optics behind lenses that were oddly expressive still, and a firm will that seemed to bend to no one.

She stood her ground and defended her friends and Jazz honestly wouldn't put it past her to use her fists- or pedes- to do the talking. Seeing her actually kick Sentinel in the ball bearings with his own optics testified that.

Yet there was that natural grace when she moved along with that mellow skip in her step that merged perfectly together. When she fought, she moved with grace yet her strikes were swift, flexible and agile, each one filled with as much precision as possible for the most effective impacts. She kept her cool and was quick on her feet, her instincts well-honed for danger.

She used Mueiyaku like a prodigy and wielded her tessens with so much familiarity- and Jazz knew for a fact that tessens weren't most bots first weapons choice, yet alone something they can use so efficiently.

Then he also saw Prowl jump into battle with shurikens and using said weapons to execute a Metallikato technique. He seemed to be a bit rough around the edges yet he moved so naturally that Jazz had no doubt he must've had a qualified instructor to teach him.

Furthermore, there was Drift. Jazz was proud to say that he was one of the few bots Drift let himself grow close to- close enough for both of them to call one another friends. So imagine how surprised Jazz was once again when he saw how Drift interacted with the femme. They seemed at ease with one another and didn't mind exchanging playful witty banter. And he could see the rare warmth in the ex-con's optics whenever he spoke to her, showing his closeness to her.

When Jazz returned to his quarters that night, he found himself replaying the events over and over again rather than recharging.

He came up with many conclusions.

One conclusion he was absolutely certain of- both Prowl and the femme had Cyberninja training of some kind.

That conclusion was all he needed to connect the other dots and once Jazz did, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry or hit himself with his own laser nunchakus.

_"Guess you never got that far on your Cyberninja training."_

How could he have not seen the answer when it was right in front of him? Of course Prowl never finished his training because he _couldn't._ His training had to remain incomplete by then because.........

Because Prowl was Yoketron's _last_ student and Jazz would bet 100 cans of axel grease and every shanix in his account that he never got to finish his training because of their fellow masters passing.

And that brought him to another conclusion.

The femme on their team.........was Mantis.

Yoketron's daughter.

The same daughter Jazz thought was offline by now. The same one Jazz and so many others failed.

A part of Jazz didn't want to get his hopes up; he didn't want the crushing failure of another dead end to punch him in the tanks again and tighten the noose of guilt around his spark.

Yet, he couldn't ignore all the evidence he's witnessed.

The way she moved; the ways she talked; the bravery, determination and wisdom beyond her age in her optics under the shades; the way she fought; the weapons she used; the dreads she proudly wore out in the open and just......the way she was.

It made Jazz want to cry as he realized had it not been for this mission of coming to Earth, he would've continued to fail both Prowl and Mantis. He would've continued to fail Yoketron and worse, he would've let his legacy well and truly fade from existence.

'I have to fix this.' He realized. 'I have to at least do something.' He told himself.

_"And if you guys want to call yourselves, 'guards' maybe you all should start acting like it! Instead of trying to pin the blame on us after we've done everything we could considering we were ditched by you lot to fend for ourselves, you guys should pick your goddamn afts up and actually do something about it!"_

He winced when he remembered those words. Suddenly, Jazz understood why she had been so spiteful that day and he couldn't blame her for it. If he was being honest, a part of him wanted her to do it to him again because Primus, she deserves to be angry. Mantis deserves to be disappointed and upset at the Elite Guard, especially a fellow Cyberninja like him.

Not only did Jazz let her and their adoptive sire down, so did the Elite Guard and god knows how many others. 

'Then it's time I owned up to my screw ups.' He told himself.

He had to make this right. All four of them had questions and all of them deserved answers. If he did this right then.....then maybe all four of them can finally mend broken bridges and finally put some past ghosts to rest.

With that in his processor, he got out of his berthroom and went to look for Drift.

^^*************^^

"This is a yes no question- didja know that femme on OP's team was Mantis all this time?" Jazz asked, getting straight to the point.

Drift who seemed on the verge of falling back into recharge instantly seemed more alert.

"Say what now?" he asked Jazz.

Jazz moved past Drift to stand in his quarters, servos crossed over his chassis as he glared at Drift- something he didn't do often.

"Did you know?" Jazz repeated.

"Know what? Come on, you're scaring me and it's the middle of the ni-"

"Drift, please." Jazz pleaded. "I gotta know." 

Drift stayed quiet for a while and the silence stretched, making Jazz worry. Then Drift sighed.

"Sometimes I hate that ninja intuition we all have." He muttered.

"I take that's a yes." Jazz said, it was a statement not a question.

Drift exhaled deeply from his vents. "Yeah."

"Wha-how-why didn't you tell me?!" Jazz asked, betrayed. Normally he would've kept his cool and try to talk things out, smooth it over before taking action but this was an exception.

"Hey, don't look at me." Drift defended. "It was her choice. And besides." He lowered his tone to a more serious one. "Think about it. Someone had the ball bearings and the processor to actually attack Master Yoketron's _home directly and_ steal all the protoforms _and_ get away with killing him. Wouldn't you be a bit wary after all that scrap?"

"But still, she was under your roof and you didn't even bother?! Do you have any idea how much I mourned- how much some of the others mourned for her too?" Jazz asked.

"And what if I did? What would you guys have done? Oh that's right." Drift crossed his servos and glared back. "The Elite Guard would've oh so kindly 'taken' her in and train her to become a weapon. Another favourite toy soldier they could control."

"We wouldn't have-" this time, Drift cut him off.

"Maybe _you_ wouldn't have Jazz, but you think your superiors would've agreed to be as nice as you?" Drift asked.

Jazz stayed silent.

"Look at the twins they pulled in for that project to put fragging _Decepticon coding_ into their heads. You think I don't know about that? The only reason they were selected was because they were _expendable_ and if all else fails, they can be swept under the rug and forgotten." Drift went on.

Jazz winced as though he was slapped but deep down, he knew Drift was right.

"Alright, lemme rephrase that- you could've told me. _Just me_." Jazz said.

Drift sighed. "Ok, point taken. Then again with all the pieces we had to clean up after.....everything, I just didn't want to drop another bomb on you."

Then silence. It didn't last long but it may as well have stretched on for hours from their perspective, the topic they were discussing heavily dangling in the middle of it all.

"Drift, I need your help." Jazz said, breaking it.

"For what?" Drift asked.

"I need you to contact Mantis and Prowl for me." He said.

"Can't you do it yourself? Didn't you give Prowl a comm too?" Drift pointed out.

"Yeah but Mantis trusts you more and you seem cool with Prowl too." Jazz pointed back. "Please, Drift. We need you for this."

"I'm sorry, _we?"_ Drift asked.

Jazz nodded. "It's high time all four of us have a family reunion and a long overdue chat." He said serious.

"Jazz...." Drift said, his tone even and serious. "You may be my friend but keep in mind I was also Mantis's temporary guardian before she came here and long before you found out who she was." Yeah, he'll admit that he's grown fond of Mantis over the years and he knew he wouldn't call her the daughter he never had- that honor was for Yoketron and _no one_ can replace him- but she's definitely grown to become the closest thing Drift has ever had to a baby sister.

Jazz put his servos up in a placating gesture.

"I just need to talk to the two of them to clear some things up. Think about it- they were the last bots with Yoketron in his final moments, they might have something that can help us put the case to rest.

"Please, man." He grabbed Drift's shoulders and looked at him pleadingly as both a friend and a brother-in-arms. "For Master Yoketron."

".................................give me a time and place." Drift said.

^^*************^^

Jazz was usually a patient bot. The patience grew into him considering he's a Cyberninja that has to put up with Sentinel and a pair of hyper twins with flying and elemental capabilities.

But for once, he was impatient.

"You're jumpy." Drift remarked.

"Nerves are a lil funky." Jazz admitted. "Can ya blame me considering the chit chat we're about to have?"

Drift shrugged. "It was kinda inevitable. Look, just calm down and act natural. It's Mantis not some kinda....princess." he scrunched his faceplate up at that. "Come to think of it, you'll probably just offend her if you treat her like some fragile doll."

"Ok, so the lil lady likes to be respected but in a capable strong independent way, dig?" Jazz asked.

"Uh....yeah." Drift agreed. Jazz and his slang can still throw his processor off sometimes.

Then they snapped to attention when they saw two motorcycles riding towards them. The two motorcycles transformed into Mantis and Prowl.

"Jazz, Drift. Good to see you two again." Prowl said politely with a nod in greeting.

"Hi guys, thanks for inviting us here. We appreciate the help. Saves us the trouble of having to deal with Chinhead." Mantis said with a smile, ignorant to what they were about to discuss.

Said Chinhead was 'discussing' with Optimus about how both of them would have to speak with the mayor about holding a press conference to assure the humans they weren't here to harm them.

"So, what's on the activity's list?" she went on.

Jazz and Drift glanced at one another. They didn't want to alarm them and had come up with the cover story that they were here to help them with their Cyberninja techniques.

"Actually..." Drift awkwardly cleared his throat.

"We're here cuz we seriously need to talk." Jazz said deciding to bite the bullet.

"About what?" both of them asked, now a wary undertone to their voices.

"Serious stuff. Not out here." Jazz said and nodded towards the ship. "I think we all rather keep it as private as possible."

Prowl and Mantis glanced at one another, their gaze alone seeming to convey messages. Then they nodded and followed Jazz and Prowl into the ship.

Jazz brought them to the training room. It was spacious and stored with equipment and tools needed for exercise or spars with three dummies along the wall beside a bench and even a small storage container for oil and energon cubes.

Jazz sat down on the sparring mat, pedes crossed and Drift plopped down beside him. Getting the hint, Prowl and Mantis sat down opposite them in similar positions to face them, forming a squarish circle.

Jazz took a deep vent and decided it was now or never.

"Hey, lil miss, can you come closer for a click?" Jazz asked, beckoning Mantis come closer much to her surprise.

"Oooookay?" she said, scooting closer.

Then Jazz reached out and grasped her dreads, bundling them into pigtails before holding them up much to her confusion and slight uneasiness.

"Hey, what's the deal?" she asked.

"What are you doing?" Prowl asked, suspicious.

"No way.............." Jazz said. Seeing her dreads up like this....seeing her features up close- how they were sharp yet held that feminine cheerful softness within, there was no doubt.

Joy and relief- pure unbridled joy and relief overtook Jazz and he laughed. Before he knew it, he was surging forward and embracing Mantis in a hug while still laughing and almost whooping for joy much to her shock. Had he been standing, he would've danced on the spot in joy too.

"What the-?!" she glanced at Drift who shrugged.

"Primus, it is you!" Jazz said, pulling away from the hug with his servos on her shoulders, a wide relieved smile on his faceplate. "It's really you!" he repeated.

"Ok, what the heck is going on, you got three clicks before I slap someone." Mantis said.

"Right, sorry. Got a bit carried away." Jazz said with a cough, letting Mantis scoot back next to Prowl and for him to recompose himself.

"I know who you two are now." He said.

They looked at him, confused.

"I know you're Mantis. You're...." Jazz swallowed. "You're Master Yoketron's daughter."

Her optics widened slightly and she opened her mouth to protest but Drift reached out and placed a servo on her shoulder to stop her.

"It's ok, kid. Jazz can be trusted." He reassured her.

"And what does this have to do with us coming here alone and discussing this in private?" Prowl asked. His tone was controlled and even, his faceplate giving nothing away but Jazz could tell the gears were spinning in his processor and body tensing, ready to pounce and take his sister out of harm's way.

Jazz put his servos up in a peaceful gesture. "Chill, Prowl. I didn't call y'all here for any funky business. I just called you two here to talk."

"About?"

Now or never.

"Yoketron's death and his daughter's mysterious disappearance." Jazz said.

Both of them stiffen and Mantis's servo unconsciously sought for Prowl's, no doubt to ground her. Said mech instantly grasped it and gave a comforting squeeze.

Jazz looked at Mantis, gaze sad yet understanding.

"You don't remember me, do ya?" he asked.

"I............" Mantis frowned. Then she leaned forward to take a closer look at him. "You look familiar but I can't place it."

Jazz smiled and took out something from his subspace. "Maybe this'll jog your memory."

Mantis blinked and took it. It was an old and small holographic panel with a drawing- obviously done by a child- of two bots- one a small figure with patches of green and grey.....things attached to her head and the other had to be Jazz holding a brown streak- it looked like a Protyhexian guitar, Mantis guessed- with scrawls of what seemed to resemble music notations.

"Wait a click....." Mantis said, inspecting it. "I drew this." Slowly, it was coming back, it was rising back steadily like a thermometer in a slowly heating up oven. Then Mantis's optics widened as she remembered.

_She recalled laughing and squealing with joy as a pair of servos grasped hers and swung her around, both dancing away and humming random songs she couldn't remember._

_She giggled as he easily tossed up her small body but she wasn't scared because he easily caught her again and gave her another twirl as they embraced themselves to the music of joy._

"It's you!" she cried, remembering now. "You're the one that always danced with me. Your bust was there in the dojo too! You're Jazz!"

Jazz couldn't describe how relief washed over him like a tidal wave along with an ocean of melancholy when Mantis finally recalled him.

"Bout time you remembered his ugly mug." Drift muttered.

"Oh you're just jealous." Jazz said, giving him a playful shove to show no hard feelings.

Prowl cleared his throat.

"Can we get to the point?" he asked.

Jazz composed himself. "Right, right." Then he took out a few datapads and passed them to Prowl and Mantis. "As you can guess, after that mess, an investigation was launched. Unfortunately, it was shot down cuz-"

"Cuz some 'Elite' Guards couldn't find a scraplet if it was munching on their own tailpipes." Drift scoffed. Jazz glared at him for the interruption. "Ok ok, continue in serious mode."

"It was shot down cuz we had little to nothing to go on. Whoever pulled this off was no rookie. He had a plan- heck, he even seemed to know the layout of the place which brings us to two things." Jazz brought up two digits. "One, he has a personal past with the dojo or Yoketron in general which led to a revenge vendetta. Two, he had inside help."

"Are you suspecting a mole?" Prowl asked. 'And you think it's one of us.' Went unsaid.

Jazz shrugged. "Maybe but I doubt it. If there ever was a mole, I'm pretty sure Yoketron would've noticed something off. You know him, he somehow just _knows_."

"True." They all agreed.

"So that brings us to the first point- someone with a bone to pick with him personally. I called you two here today to clear up all the blurred lines and fill in the blank gaps. You two were the last bots under Yoketron's wing and you two might know something that can finally help all of us put this to rest." Jazz said.

Prowl stayed silent for a while. Then he picked up one of the datapads.

"Why don't you tell us what you know first and we'll try to fill in any gaps left behind." Prowl said.

Jazz smiled, glad they were willing to cooperate. And so he did, he told him everything he managed to find out and some of the more plausible solid theories.

"I.......I don't recall anyone who seemed to have a grudge against Shifu. I mean, he mostly kept to himself and the few friends he has are bots he's known his whole life and fought beside with." Mantis said.

"What about students?" Drift suggested.

Mantis frowned. "That.....I'm not sure. He had quite a few and I only know some of them. Some I've met or grew up with while some I never met cuz they were waaaaaaaay too long ago. And the busts if those count." She said.

But there was something all of them were missing. It was like a small bug droning nearby, too small to simply swat away instantly. They filed it away for later.

"This brings me to the next question." Jazz said. "When we got there, we noticed something.....odd." Odd was an understatement.

"What was that?" Mantis asked.

"There were two bodies." Jazz said.

"I think you all miscalculated." Prowl said stiffly. "There was more than one." He shuddered as he recalled the bodies of the other students who fought valiantly to protect the protoforms only to fail.

"He's talking about Master Yoketron's body." Drift said.

"Two- what are you talking about? What Shifu has a long lost twin? A secret clone?" Mantis asked.

Prowl however knew what it truly was.

"It was a protoform with his spark transplanted in it." He said, voice barely above a whisper.

Jazz and Drift's optics widened in surprised.

"How did you know that?" Jazz asked.

Mantis glanced over at him concerned but he just patted her servo to reassure her. This could be their chance to put all their inner demons to rest, having to confess his sins one more time is a small price to pay for that.

"I was there." Prowl confessed.

"You....you were there when his spark faded?" Jazz asked with dreaded curiosity. "You were there when he was attacked?"

"No!" Prowl and Mantis quickly defended.

"I swear on my life I wasn't and if I was, I would've fought until the last drop of energon in me was gone. I had just returned from my optic's quest and when I got there it was already too late!

"The dojo was in shambles and sister was gone and......" Prowl closed his optics. "And Master Yoketron's spark was already fading. I found him on the bridge in the protoform room. I....I was panicking and I was scared, I was desperate and managed to find one of the protoforms- they missed one. I used it and tried to do a spark transplant to save his life but....but......" he trailed off, unable to continue.

"And after that, you ran." Drift said. "You panicked and ran away."

Prowl nodded, shamefaced. "I didn't know what else to do. I lost the only place I called home, I lost Master Yoketron and......." He squeezed Mantis's servo tighter. "I thought I lost my sister too. I was just so.....angry and I didn't know what else to do, I didn't know where to go or who to call."

"And to be fair." Mantis chimed in. "He was the only witness. His words wouldn't have done much. Heck, the Elite Guard might even suspect brother of being the culprit."

Jazz and Drift hummed in agreement. It.....made sense.

Leaning forward slightly, Jazz gripped Prowl's shoulders and looked the mech in the optics.

"Thank you." Jazz said.

Prowl was perplexed. "For......what?"

"For saving Master Yoketron's life."

He looked down. "I didn't. He still went offline, didn't he?"

"He did. But....but you tried, god you tried when none of us could've. You were there when we weren't in his last moments and that means more than you think." Jazz said, sincere yet firm. Hearing someone else other than Mantis say that soothed the pain somewhat for Prowl.

"Ok, at least now we know the identity of the anonymous bot who tried to do the spark transplant. But do you have any clues on who the culprit is?" Drift asked.

Prowl shook his helm. "I'm afraid not." He said.

Drift exhaled sharply through his denta. "Scrap. We're still in square one on that."

"You still don't recall anything?" Prowl asked Mantis.

"I'm blank." She said with a sad helpless shrug.

Silence stretched between them, it stretched on and soon became awkward.

"Can you two excuse us? I need to talk to Mantis.....alone." Jazz said.

Drift got the message and stood up. "Okie dokie, time for hush hush stuff."

Prowl however was more reluctant.

"About what?" Prowl asked.

"Something....personal." Jazz said.

"I'm her older brother, I _am_ personal." Prowl said, crossing his servos and planting his foot down.

Mantis cleared her throat to get both of their attention.

"Come on, no need to be so uptight. Technically you two are brothers too." Mantis said with a playful grin.

"How? How did you come to that conclusion?" Prowl deadpanned.

"Come on, all four of us are Cyberninjas- well, technically you and I are only halfway there but still. This is...kinda like a reunion if you ask me." Mantis said.

"Yeah, one big happy family. Who would've thought it'd take putting up with Sentinel's scrap and coming to an organic planet to make that happen?" Drift said aloud.

"So that means I'm her big bro too." Jazz said.

"What is with everyone and teaming up with you to conspire against me?" Prowl muttered under his breath. Then he huffed and relented. "You get 10 minutes." He said curtly.

"I'll be sure to start the timer." Jazz said amiably, not at all taken aback.

"Start it now." Prowl said before standing up. Jazz noted how the bot fondly ruffled Mantis's dreads only for said femme to bat his servo away, annoyed yet he could still see the fondness in her.

Soon it was just the two of them.

"..........I don't know about you but my pedes are killing me." Mantis said. Then she nodded towards the mini storage container. "You mind.........?"

"Oh sure. Go ahead." He said.

He watched as she got up, as athletic as a cybercat and walked over to grab herself a cube.

"You want one?" she asked.

"Nah, my tanks are cool, thanks." Jazz said, politely declining.

Mantis took another sip of her cube and her optics ridges rose up. "Wow, you guys have all the good stuff." She remarked.

"You should see the stashes Drift has." Jazz said.

"Oh I have." Mantis said with a mischievous smirk. "And they're definitely good."

"And he didn't try to slag ya to kingdom come?" he asked.

"Not yet." She said with a cheeky grin.

They both chuckled.

"Anyways, I uh........" Jazz got up and rubbed the back of his helm, choosing his words carefully. "I want to say I'm sorry." He said, tone contrite and ashamed.

Mantis blinked, surprised. "For what?"

All of a sudden, it all came pouring out of Jazz before he had time to comprehend it all.

"...what you said back then to Sentinel, to all of us in general....you were right." Jazz said. "What you said was rude and brash but it was the harsh truth and....and you deserved it, _we_ deserved it. You deserve to be angry at us and.....and I'm sorry for that.

"I got so caught up in work that I forgot about the most important duty of all- family. But it's no excuse for what I did. I forgot about you and Master Yoketron, I didn't even come back to visit in stellar cycles. I forgot to keep in touch to the point I may as well not have been there to begin with.

"I know saying 'I'm sorry' won't fix anything. It won't bring Master Yoketron back, it won't make the dojo go back to what it once was, it won't make up for all the pain you had to go through, all the loneliness, all the mourning you had to endure alone and I know it won't change how big I screwed up." Jazz took a deep vent to regain himself after pouring it all out.

"You don't have to forgive me out of obligation. You can....you can be mad at me or upset at me, it's ok. You deserve that much. But can you....can you give me a chance to make things up to you? To make up for my screw up?" he asked.

Mantis stood there, shocked at the turn of events. She obviously pictured herself to do all kinds of stuff today but this clearly never popped up on her list.

"Jazz, I......" she paused. Did she forgive him? Can she forgive him? Should she forgive him? _Could_ she, really?

She hesitantly placed a servo on his shoulder and chose her words as wisely as possible.

"You're right." She said. "Saying 'I'm sorry' won't rewind time and undo all the damage. But..........I'm not mad at you, Jazz."

"You aren't?" he asked, surprised at such a quick forgiveness.

Mantis nodded. "Forgiving someone is a two-way trip, so is trust. I forgive you and I trust you'll try. The question is whether or not you can uphold it on your end." She said, her optics seeming to bore into his soul.

"And....to be fair, it's not just your fault." She sighed. "At the end of the day, it was the Decepticons. Did you fail to help us when we needed it most? Yeah. But not once, _never_ once did I blame you guys for the attack in general. None of us asked for..... _that_. None of us asked for....for Shifu to...." she swallowed, no words needed for the both of them to know what was left unsaid.

"So it's not just your fault. Please, don't try to play the martyr card too." She said instead.

Jazz realized she was willing to give him a chance. That was more than he expected and he sure as frag won't mess it up.

"Thank you." He said. "I swear, I'll try my best not to break it." He said.

Mantis smiled. "I'll count on it."

"Could you....tell me your side of the story?" Jazz asked hesitantly.

"Sure." She said.

And so she did and they both sat down once more. She told him how she ran and how she too hated how there was nothing else she could've done to help; how she almost went offline- Jazz honest to god felt his spark skip a beat when she managed to describe that in morbid detail; how Drift found her; how she prayed and hope and mourned and grieved; she confessed that she was also a coward for not being able to find it in herself to even visit his grave- Jazz reassured her she was anything but that; how Drift tried to keep teaching her what he could and so on.

She may or may not have been vague about her past saboteur escapades.

Slowly, ever so slowly, through the lingering guilt, Jazz felt the frayed ends he neglected begin to intertwine back together again.

It would take some time, but he knew that gradually, all four of them would heal from their respective wounds.

Somehow, he just knew that if anyone was capable of bringing the Corps back together the way Yoketron truly wanted.....it was Mantis.

Yoketron was gone, he knew there was no changing that.

But Mantis- his daughter, his legacy- was still here.

And Jazz knew that fact finally soothed the spike of throbbing pain within his spark.


	5. Return of the Headmaster; New Roomie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This takes place during TFA: Return of the Headmaster but from Mantis and Sari's POV too. Thus, the focus will be on them and not on OP and Chinhead too much but I'll try to make sure both perspectives are noted.

The days flew by too fast for Mantis. One day, she and Prowl were getting a call from Jazz and Drift with an offer to help smooth out the rough edges in their Cyberninja skills; the next they were discussing about the cold case of their adoptive sire's murder and her 'disappearance'; and then the next she was helping Bee and OP set up Sari's......new room.

And now, here she was with Sari at Sumdac Tower helping her pack her final stuff. Although Sari said she wanted to do so alone, Mantis could easily see pass the tough facade and tagged along nonetheless. Plus, two pairs of hands were better than one- especially if one of them could carry more stuff and bigger stuff.

"And then he says _I_ have to move out! I mean, hello?! I live here! Who does this Porter C. Powell guy think he is anyway?" Sari ranted as she stuffed her clothes into her suitcase, struggling slightly to stuff it all inside. She stuffed them in with such force, the fabric threatened to rip at the seams. 

"I believe the human term for him is a d!ckhead." Mantis replied with a straight-face. The Cybertronian femme was sitting down on the floor to Sari's bedroom letting her human ally vent her frustrations out on her packing and ranting while trying to move as little as possible so she doesn't do anymore collateral damage to the tower.

"No kidding!" Sari agreed as she sat herself down on her suitcase, trying to get it to close. Evidently she stuffed more than it could manage in there.

"Chairman of the Board? What does that even mean?!" with a 'click' the suitcase finally closed. Mantis silently helped Sari grab her other two suitcases and followed her.

"They should just call him...big jerk who thinks he's in charge of everything!" Sari went on. Then she looked up to see Powell standing there himself, having heard every word Sari just said.

Rather than be insulted, Powell decided to use it as fuel to rub salt into the wound.

"Oh I don't _think_ I'm in charge, young lady, I _know_ it." He said smugly. "So, hurry along." He said, stepping aside and into her room like he owned the place.....which he sadly did. "I need this space for more research and development in order to make enough new money to cover what you lost the company while you were playing at being in charge, Ms. _Sumdac_." He emphasized the last word and Mantis could already sense the mockery behind it.

"Or can I even call you that?" he said, looming over her.

That seemed to hit a nerve. Hard. Sari's face turned red and steam practically hissed from her ears at the implied insult.

"Just because there's no record that I'm Isaac Sumdac's daughter doesn't mean I'm not! He's my dad and I don't care what you say! Why am I even talking to you?!" she snapped.

Mantis just rolled her optics.

"Leave her alone, d!ckhead. Don't you have paperwork to drown yourself in?" Mantis huffed.

"I have much more important issues to attend to. Issues I doubt you would understand." Powell said, the passive insult evident.

Mantis just gave him a cold smile. "You done? Cuz I think your a$$ is jealous of all the crap coming out of your mouth." She said.

Powell spluttered, obviously not expecting that then he composed himself and glared at her.

"I would leave _now_. The days where you bots could waltz in and out as you please are over. From now on, you want entrance to this place? You have to clear it up with me. So I suggest you leave before I call the cops on you for trespassing on private property." He said.

"Don't worry, when I see your face there's only one thing I wanna change- the direction I look at." Mantis sneered back.

Sari just turned on her heel and walked out with her head up high. If she was going to leave, she'd leave with dignity.

"Come on, Sparkplug. Come on, Tutorbot. Let's get outta here. This place stinks!" Sari huffed as she pressed the button on the elevator.

She turned around to see Powell standing by the entrance to her room, not allowing Sparkplug and Tutorbot to come out.

"Need I remind you those robots are both Sumdac Systems property. _Leave them_." He said.

'First you take my family's company, then you take my home- my room and now Sparkplug and Tutorbot too?!' Sari thought, resisting the urge to punch the smug shady businessman in the face. She settled for glaring at him instead. If looks could kill, Mantis wouldn't mind seeing Powell burn.

"Hurry now. The new occupant will be arriving soon to start setting up his R&D facilities." Powell said. He pressed the elevator button and the doors opened to reveal the 'new occupant'.

Sari and Mantis gasped when they saw who it was, the two suitcases in Mantis's servos falling onto the ground in shock.

Standing there was Henry Masterson, aka the Headmaster.

"You!" they both cried.

"That's right, lamer. The master-man with the master-plan in back!" he shoved past Sari to enter her room but before he could, Mantis grabbed him.

"What the?! Hey! Put me down, robo-girl!" he said.

Mantis glared at him. 'We can't harm humans.' She reminded herself but hey, Prowl never said anything about scaring the crap outta them.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't yeet you out the window right now." She growled.

"I highly suggest you don't make any brash decisions on my employee. I doubt the citizens would approve of one of their 'heroes' harming one of our kind, would they?" Powell tutted.

Mantis fumed but relented and dropped Masterson down onto his behind anyways. As much as she hated it, she couldn't ruin the Autobot's image any further. Right now, they needed to gain trust not break it even more.

Masterson huffed and straightened his coat. "Glitch." He muttered under his breath as he walked in. He rudely shoved Tutorbot down and stood there, guffawed, seemingly in awe of his new room despite it being pink and frilly.

"Whoa, check it! Major cribbage." He said in that slang Mantis could never understand and found annoying. "And it's mine...all mine." He said gleefully before hugging himself and laughing giddily.

"You can't have hired that guy back! He's crazy!" Sari protested.

"He's a slagging criminal! In case you forgot, he tried to do mass genocide! What's he even doing here? He's supposed to be in jail!" Mantis protested.

It was true. Heck, she personally handed Masterson over to the police to be taken away. Even Fanzone told her so himself when she bumped into him during patrol.

"Lemme tell you a thing about us humans in our society- a little bit of green can go a long way." Powell said smugly, rubbing his thumb and index finger together to tell Mantis by 'green' he did't mean Mother Nature.

"You bribed him out?!" Mantis said.

"I bailed him out- all of which are perfectly legal and official." He said smugly.

"He's unstable! You ok with a psycho maniac working for you? The guy doesn't know the line between reality and fiction!" Sari said, jabbing a finger at Masterson who was still giggling to himself maniacally while he thought of god knows what in his cracked head.

"That, thankfully, is no longer your concern, nor yours." He said to both of them. Then he nudged her into the lift and handed Sari her suitcase.

Mantis's heart broke when she saw the distraught broken look in Sari's eyes as the harsh crippling impact of her loss finalized itself when the lift's doors closed.

She sighed and storing Sari's suitcases in her subspace, Mantis exited the building too.

'Shifu, give me patience.' She prayed, knowing full well she's going to need it now more than ever.

^^*************^^

Unbeknownst to the femme, she wasn't the only one praying for patience. While she and Sari were moving out, Optimus and Sentinel had to attend a press conference along with the mayor and Captain Fanzone.

Optimus thought it was the perfect chance to settle down tensions lingering with the humans but it was proving rather difficult considering the fact that Sentinel insisted on doing most of the talking. And frankly, Optimus was a few clicks shy of yanking the darn mic from him, slapping him, strangling him or ripping his own audio receptors off to spare him the misery..........or all of the above.

He's also quite proud of his poker face and self-restraint considering he hasn't done either of the stated above......yet.

Sentinel was his usual charming self- boasting the significance of the elite Guard's presence, condescending the 'icky organics', showing complete ignorance to Earth's customs and insulting Optimus's lowly position every chance he got.

Yup, nothing new there.

"Optimus Prime!" News-Bot asked directly, finally giving Optimus an excuse to speak up and be heard. "Is it true that all Cybertronians have no regard for human life and view Earth as little more than a battleground for their never-ending robot wars?"

"Why you little-" Before Sentinel could add fuel to the fire and burn it all further, Optimus quickly yanked the mic towards him to speak.

"First, let me say what a great honor it is for us to be suck welcomed guests here on your planet. We are truly sorry for all you've been through with the recent Decepticon attack. We understand that with the threat of Megatron still looming out there, fears can run a little-" Optimus unfortunately got no further as Sentinel wrenched the mic back.

"Enough! You bots will direct your questions to me." Sentinel snapped.

Covering the mic with his servo, he turned around and glared at Optimus.

"Don't ever presume you can speak for me, Optimus." He hissed. "The last thing we need is some over-glorified repair-bot shooting his audio processor off about things he doesn't understand."

Then Sentinel plastered a smile and gave the crowd a brief wave.

"A scrub like you should just smile and wave and stay out of the way." He said.

Slap or strangle- Optimus was seriously contemplating them now.

"Now, let's get this over with." Sentinel said haughtily. Then he realized he didn't know how to end this exactly. He cleared his throat and leaned closer to ask Optimus.

"What am I supposed to do now?" he whispered.

Optimus knew what he had to do and knew he'd hate it......which made this all the more satisfying for him.

"Well." He said casually. "According to human customs, you shake hands with the mayor." Optimus finished with an amiable smile but his optics glinted with satisfaction when he saw the squeamish look on Sentinel's faceplate.

"Touch an organic?!" Sentinel hissed at him.

"Unless you want to pass off such a _great_ _diplomatic responsibility_ to such a 'lowly repair bot.'" Optimus said breezily.

Sentinel gritted his denta and glared at Optimus. Then reluctantly, he bent down and let the mayor shake his digit. Once that was done he wrenched his servo away and overzealously sprayed it with a can of disinfectant.

Optimus sighed. "Same old Sentinel." He said to himself.

^^*************^^

"Thanks for taking me in guys." Sari said.

Mantis hated how resigned she sounded; it was nothing like the feisty human ally she knew.

"Are you kidding? This is gonna be great! Like one non-stop party." Bee said, enthusiastic as ever. Mantis had to give him points for that. She knew Bee was just trying to cheer her up.

"Yeah....party." Sari said, not sharing his enthusiasm as she passed her suitcases to Bulkhead before trudging in, head low. "Bet Masterson's throwing himself one big party right now."

"How could they hire that nut-job body-snatcher to work for your father's company anyway?" Bulkhead agreed.

"Wasn't the guy in prison?" Bee pointed out.

"Powell bailed him out." Mantis said then scowled. "That guy's a d!ckhead."

"Powell or Masterson?" Bee asked.

"Both." She replied.

"I mean, it goes against everything my father stood for!" Sari went on.

"Considering his track record, he might do our job for us and kick the bucket himself." Mantis tried to reassure.

"My father........" Sari repeated softly, more to herself than anything.

Mantis's spark panged. A part of her......didn't know honestly. On one hand, she wanted Sari to hold onto that hope, to believe her dad _will_ come back but on the other, she didn't want her to cling on so long she ends up forcing herself to run on false hope like a drug that will eventually kill the body and cripple the mind.

"Hey, don't you worry about anything, roomie. You're living with us now and it's gonna rock! It's like a never-ending sleepover." Bee said optimistically.

Sari just plopped herself down on the concrete couch.

"Do you....want anything?" Mantis asked.

".....my father." Sari whispered, voice breaking.

Bee seemed to pick it up since his positive upbeat facade dropped.

"Um.....anything else?" he asked.

"Time." Sari said simply. "Just....some time to think."

"Ok, call us if you need anything and...." Mantis knelt down and used her digit to gently nudged Sari's chin up. "Please, Sari, you're not alone. We're here to help, ok?" she said with what she hoped was a reassuring smile.

Sari simply nodded before going back to being miserable.

"We have to do something to make her feel at home." Bee whispered to Mantis and Bulkhead once Sari wasn't paying attention.

"What do we do to feel happy and at home?" Bulkhead asked.

"Guys, TV and video games won't fix this." Mantis deadpanned.

"I- it......it's worth a shot?" Bee suggested.

Mantis sighed. "Guys, do you know anything about the five stages of grief?" she asked.

"Stages?" they echoed.

"Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance." She supplied.

"And what stage is Sari in?" Bee asked, glancing over at their human friend who just sat there, eyes distant yet dull like a stormy cloud.

"I.......I'm not a psychologist." Mantis admitted. "But I think...denial."

"That's the first one right?" Bulkhead asked.

She nodded. "Basically it's like.....like the world's too much, y'know? Too overwhelming. So we're just always spacing out in a state of shock. We simply try to hold onto hope and go on with life."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Bee asked.

"No it isn't. None of them are good. Eventually the feelings you 'deny'- all the grief, loss, anger, hopelessness and depression will come back and trust me it ain't pretty." Mantis said.

"Then what do we do?" Bulkhead asked, glancing over at Sari worryingly.

Mantis bit her lip. "I.....don't know."

"And one click ago you were going all wise therapy know it all mode." Bee snorted.

Mantis glared. "At least I have a decent processor to actually think before acting unlike you."

"Hey! You saying I'm stupid?" Bee asked, optics narrowed.

"Well you're no rocket scientist that's for sure." she hufffed.

"Guys, not now!" Bulkhead snapped- for once, actually _snapped_ before Bee and Mantis could begin. "Sari's there and she needs us." He reminded them.

".........sorry." Mantis said. "That was uncalled for BB." she chastised herself for being so immature. The last thing any of them needed now was some petty squabble. 

"It's ok. You were right. Bulk and I were honestly gonna just wing it." Bee admitted.

"Seriously, what do we do?" Bulkhead asked. "What can we do to cheer her up?"

Mantis thought about it. Then for once, she decided to reflect back on those stellar cycles- those crappy stellar cycles where she wanted to tell the world to just frag off and just end it all. What did she want? What would she do?

"I think....that can wait for later." She said. "Right now, we give Sari space, give her time to process all this. If she wants to come to us for help, she'll ask. If she doesn't want to talk about it, don't push it. And try not to be _too_ positive."

"Why? I thought positive was a good thing?" Bee asked.

"It is but trust me, in this case? It can just add salt to the wound. Guys........this sucks, ok? This whole situation _sucks_. Pretending it isn't would be cruel. Being too positive will it look as though we're trivializing it all and trust me, that is insulting and _very_ painful. What we want to do is let her know we're here to help her through it, that's what's important right now. Not give her false hope and try to sweep it under the rug." Mantis said.

They nodded, processing this.

"You seem to know a lot about this kinda stuff. Did Prowl teach ya?" Bulkhead asked.

Mantis just gave him a blank look. For a click, both Bee and Bulkhead were lost for words at the uncharacteristic look on her faceplate.

"I have experience." She said curtly.

"You ninjabots have therapy sessions too?" Bee tried to joke.

"It's called loss." Mantis said, voice barely above a whisper.

But Bee and Bulkhead still heard and they felt their sparks shatter.

"Anyway." She went on, composing herself. "Let's show Sari her room, help her get settled in and unpack and all that. Then maybe we can go out later to grab her a bite to eat."

"I'm sure we can spare her some oil." Bulkhead said.

Mantis just stared at him.....then facepalmed with a long suffering groan. As much as she loved her friends, their......logic- or lack thereof at times- really grinds her circuits.

"Bulkhead, Sari's a _human._ Humans don't drink oil and energon like us!" she snapped.

"Oh, right." He said.

"..........did you two even bother to do any research or even thoroughly think this through?" she asked, feeling a processor ache starting to form.

"Uh......" Bulkhead fiddled his claw-like digits.

"Well........kinda? I mean, best way to learn is through experience, right?" Bee said.

'Shifu, give. Me. Patience.' Mantis repeated. She's pretty sure if she asked for strength, she might accidentally murder someone.

"Oh for the love of- here!" Mantis took out her datapad and showed them a few websites. "Read it. Put your electronics to good use for once." She shoved the datapad into Bee's servos.

"Hey guys?" they all turned around to see Sari standing there. "If it's okay with you all, I'd like to just chill in my room a little."

"Sure. I'll help you unpack." Mantis said.

"No, it's cool. I can do it myself." Sari said.

"Then I hope you won't mind if I tag along anyways. Change of pace from these two cyber-clowns." Mantis said, jabbing a thumb at Bee and Bulkhead.

Sari shrugged, too tired to argue further. "Sure. Go ahead." She said, uncaring.

Sari unpacked in silence with the occasional huff and grunt as she took her belongings out and put them where she wanted them to go and organizing the other knick-knacks she brought along.

".....you know, if you want we could go to town later and go shopping. Maybe buy some paint or posters or something to brighten this place up?" Mantis suggested.

She remembered how back then, she insisted on taking on all the house-cleaning and other daily chores for Drift to at least do something than just hang around like a freeloader. But she also knew she did it because she was desperate for something- _anything_ \- to distract her from her crippling depression that came with mourning. Having her mind occupied with simply _doing_ something was a much needed reprieve in the monotonous but agonizing sequence she had to endure while putting herself back together.

Maybe that's what Sari needed for now- a distraction.....even if only for a short while.

"No thanks." Sari said before lying down on her bed.

Then an awkward silence stretched between them. Mantis just stood there but even she had to admit she was getting nervous from the tension.

"You can um....go....patrol or something now." Sari said awkwardly. She knew Mantis was concerned for her and as touched as she was, she just wanted to be left alone.

"Sure." Mantis said. "Let us know when you wanna eat, kay? We'll give you a lift."

"Ok." Sari said simply. She didn't exactly have much of an appetite though considering how her life was really going down the drain.

Sensing how Sari seriously wasn't in the mood to be around others, much less talk to them, Mantis left leaving the little girl to her thoughts.

As soon as the door closed, Sari closed her eyes, buried her head inside her pillow and screamed. She screamed, she wailed, she clawed at the bedsheets, she punched the mattress and just released scream after scream in an attempt to get it all out as though her father would hear her screams and come in to comfort her.

Her father didn't come.

Outside her door, Mantis felt that scream shatter her spark.

'I'm so sorry, Sari.' Was the only thing Mantis could think of saying as she buried her faceplate in one of her servos, trying not to cry as each scream chipped her back into that lonely weak sparkling all those vorns ago.

Bulkhead came over and silently walked with her back to the main room where Bee merely stared at the TV screen, video game controller in his servo but for once, wasn't playing.

"This sucks." Bee said, tossing the controller onto the table, his mood soured. "There's gotta be something we can do to get her dad's company back!"

"But what? You heard that sleazy businessman Powell, Sari doesn't have that paper stuff for the legal stuff to work out." Bulkhead said.

"I don't get it." Mantis said, tugging one of her dreads. "How can Sari live under the radar for so long without any of that stuff? And if it's so important, why didn't Professor Sumdac ever bother to tell her about it?"

"The guy can be pretty forgetful. Plus, he's kinda busy 24/7 with his big-shot business." Bee said.

"And he may be a genius but he can't be that smart. I mean, c'mon, he helped rebuild Megatron!" Bulkhead added.

"Yes, you don't have to remind us, Bulk." She said.

"Well I say we make those papers ourselves!" Bee said. "I mean, all we gotta do is type some info and print it and shove it into Powell's face, right? Then Sari will have her dad's company back and she'll get to go home."

"Bee, I don't think it's that simple." Mantis said. "And we can't just 'make those papers ourselves'-that's forgery! It could get us and Sari neck-deep in scrap with the law."

And that left the Auto Teens to wallow in their own respective frustrations and misery while the same question ran rampant in their processors.

What can they do now?

^^*************^^

Mantis woke up with a snort. She blinked owlishly and blearily looked around to find herself half-lying half-falling off the couch. Beside her, Bee was snoring with his chin tucked against his chassis.

'I must've dozed off.' Mantis thought as she slowly sat up and stretched her stiff joints. Glancing at her internal chronometer, she was surprised to see it was past noon already.

"Bee....hey, wake up." She said, shaking Bee to rouse him from his recharge.

"Waz goin' on?" he asked with a yawn.

"You wanna go check up on Sari?" Mantis asked. Maybe it was better if another face checked up on Sari instead. She didn't want Sari to think she was some helicopter parent buzzing around her all the time, it'd just agitate her.

That seemed to wake Bee up. "Sure. Maybe we can go to Burger Bot if she's hungry." He said.

"You ask her that. I'll go grab Bulk." She said.

When Bee made it to Sari's room however, he found himself hesitating. For once, he didn't know what to say.

'...........just.....play it cool. Act natural and nice like you always are.' He told himself before knocking.

"Yo, Sari? Mind if I drop in?" he asked.

"Sure." Her tired voice replied.

Bee entered and looked around her room. They tried to make her room have a more or less similar theme to her original one back at the tower to make her feel more comfortable. Right now, she was just lying there on the bed and staring blankly up at the ceiling.

"Rise and shine, sleepyhead." He said and poked her lying figure.

Normally Sari would've giggled but it was clear she wasn't in the mood as she pushed his digit away, an annoyed frown on her face.

"What do you want, Bee?" she asked, voice more gruff than she intended.

"That's my line. You hungry? You wanna go to Burger Bot and have lunch? Maybe go for a drive around the city in the coolest Autobot ever?" Bee tried to cheer up, jokingly pointing at himself.

".........not hungry." She grumbled. Then her stomach grumbled too in protest.

"Well your tanks certainly are." He said, voice firmer this time. "Come on, Sari.......your dad wouldn't want-"

"What would you know about my dad?!" Sari snapped, voice rising.

Bee winced then he just sighed. He couldn't blame Sari for shouting at him like that. It was clear she had a short fuse and with all that's happening? He knew he couldn't blame her.

"Not much. But I'm pretty sure I'd know he wouldn't be happy if he knew you were starving yourself." He said. He felt bad for using his dad to make her do something but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Sari winced and was forced to admit that Bee was right. So reluctantly she got off her bed.

"I guess a burger won't hurt." She said.

"Attagirl!" Bee said, glad she was willing to at least eat something.

"Um.....can you guys....actually just...go takeout? I don't feel like going out." Sari asked, timidly.

She didn't want to go out. She didn't want to walk out and be amongst all the other people when she already knows she's not like them. She didn't want to go out and see Sumdac Tower only for her to be bitterly reminded that it was now under Powell's thumb.

"You sure? Some fresh air might do ya good." He asked.

"I'm good in here." She said.

"......sure. Cheeseburger or hamburger?" Bee asked.

Sari shrugged. "Either one is good. Thanks." Then she sat down in front of the TV in her room and turned it on though it was clear she wasn't really watching it.

Bee got the message and left, once again leaving Sari alone to her thoughts as the TV noise faded to fuzzy white noise in her ears.

Just like her existence apparently.

^^*************^^

"How's she doing?" Bulkhead asked as Bee came back.

"Oh she's doing great!" Bee said sarcastically. "How do you think she's feeling? Miserable, that's what."

"Well nothing new there." Mantis sighed.

"You three are in awfully dour moods today." Prowl remarked as he stepped into the room and noted the sullen looks on the usually chipper Auto Teens' faceplates.

"It's.....Sari." Bee said.

Then understanding dawned on the ninjabot. He felt his spark twist when he was reminded that what Sari was going through was probably no different from what Mantis had to go through not too long ago herself.

"Be silent, be still and listen. She will tell you what she needs if you listen." Prowl said. "Right now, what she needs more than anything is a shoulder to cry on and an audio receptor to listen to her pain."

"If she even wants to reach out." Mantis sighed.

"You did." Prowl replied. "And if there's anyone that can help her get out from drowning in her grief, it's you three." Then he looked at Mantis straight in the optics. "Especially _you._ The best support anyone like Sari needs right now isn't sympathy, it's _empathy._ _"_

With that said, he left. Prowl knew this was a personal sensitive topic and he felt that he wasn't close enough to Sari to meddle too much. No, this was something Mantis, Bee and Bulkhead had a better chance of helping at.

He prayed Yoketron would give Mantis the patience and wisdom she needed to do so.

^^*************^^

"They really have to stop putting these things on every corner." Sentinel said as he plucked out a STOP sign that could jammed in between one of the chinks on his plating and flicked it away.

Not the first time, Optimus wondered if Sentinel's driving put more humans at risk than any Decepticon battle.

Currently the two Primes were in Old Detroit, having overhead from Captain Fanzone about a Decepticon sighting in the area. The buildings were weathered with age, windows cracked, rubble littered here and there and basically the whole area screamed old, a stark contrast to the modern pristine Detroit Optimus was in minutes ago.

There was a blare of sirens and soon, Fanzone along with a small squadron of policemen also arrived on the scene.

Sentinel almost rolled his optics. As if they would be any help. They were tiny! The Decepticons would squish them before they even got the chance to scratch their paint job.

Still, not wanting Optimus to act all know-it-all and goody-two-shoes, he decided he might as well try to be tactful. Bending down slightly, he pressed his digit down on the roof of Fanzone's car to get his attention.

"You.....humans will probably be in the way. Better to hang back and let a _real_ Autobot handle this." Sentinel said.

Fanzone still seemed skeptical.

"And don't worry, organic Fanzone. I have a maintenance bot along to clean up anything messy." Sentinel said, jabbing a thumb over his shoulder to Optimus. With that said, he swaggered off, chin held high in confidence.

"This is why I hate machines." Fanzone grumbled as he watched the arrogant blue bot swagger off. "Especially arrogant full-a-themselves machines!"

Optimus didn't say anything. He didn't want to waste his energy on something pointless. Instead he just walked off after Sentinel to look for the Decepticon and to keep Sentinel out of trouble.

Optimus had that bad feeling in his spark that just told him trouble was bound to come.........whether from the Decepticon or Sentinel....or both, he didn't know. A part of him hoped it was the first, which might possibly be the easiest one to deal with.

Sentinel pulled his battle mask down and glanced over at Optimus.

"Let's split up and get this nonsense over as quickly as possible." He said.

"Sentinel, we should scramble our comm-link frequencies in case the Decepticons are listening in." Optimus tried to get through to him. Not to brag but Elite Guard or not, he knew Sentinel's experience with actual Decepticons weren't as real as his.

And that could spell death.

"What you should do is stick within the scope of your programming." Sentinel sneered, jabbing a digit at Optimus's chassis as he leaned forward. Oh please, as if this repair bot knew slag about combat expertise. He was a cadet washout for Primus's sake!

"If I need a trashcan emptied or a floor mopped, I'll call on my buddy Optimus Prime. Or should I say _Maintenance_ Prime?" Sentinel mocked to his faceplate. Then he laughed at his own insult before swaggering off.

Fuming, Optimus decided that if Sentinel wanted to split up so badly then he might as well do so. Not like he wanted to be around the arrogant bot to begin with.

"Maintenance Prime.....then I'll just call you Pompous Gas Bag Prime. Yeah...that's what I should've said." Optimus grumbled to himself.

Sometimes, Optimus wished he could come up with comebacks like Mantis.............wait didn't she call him Chinhead last time? Hm.....he should note that one too.

He filed it away for later and went back to the task at hand.

^^*************^^

"Sari, your burger's getting cold." Mantis said, gesturing to the barely eaten burger in front of Sari and the already soggy fries. The little girl took little more than a bite or two before putting it down and staring at it blankly, making no move to continue eating.

"I don't have much of an appetite." Sari said with a shrug. Every swallow did nothing to ease the lump in her throat or the knot in her gut. If anything, it made her want to hurl.

Mantis exhaled through her denta. "Do you want something else? Maybe, I dunno...soup?" she recalled reading somewhere that warm liquid-like food substance can do wonders for the human body.

"No thanks." She said.

Bee sat down beside her. "Ok then, we'll do this the hard way." He said. Then he picked the burger up and held it to her mouth. "Say 'Ah'."

Sari scowled and pushed his digits away. "I'm not a baby. I can feed myself!" She huffed.

"Then why aren't you doing it?" Bee challenged.

Sari glared at him then snatched the burger from his grasp and ripped a large chunk of the burger off, chewing it and swallowing it. Then she grabbed a handful of fries and shoved those into her mouth too.

"There? Happy?" she asked.

Mantis sighed. They were trying to stay patient and understanding but Sari seemed deadset on making this difficult for all of them. Was she this bad with Drift too? Does grief/loss really break you and twist you this badly?

"Sari, we're trying to help. We'll respect your privacy and let you make your own choices but we won't let you neglect your own self-care. You _need_ to _eat_ , you _need_ to _wash up_ and you _need_ to _sleep_ whether you like it or not." She said sternly.

"You're not my mom!" Sari snapped at her.

"We're your friends, Sari. We just wanna help ya." Bulkhead tried to reassure gently.

"Then you guys can help by leaving me alone!" Sari screamed at them before tossing the half-eaten burger aside and stomping off to her room.

"........well that went well." Bee sighed, this time his voice was oozing with obvious sarcasm and exhaustion.

"I don't get it, why is she being so....so....." Bulkhead tried to look for the word.

"Difficult? Stubborn?" Bee supplied.

"Yeah that. We're just trying to help." He went on. "But we seem to only make things worse." He added glumly before slumping.

"She's just a kid. Let her blow off some steam." Bee suggested.

"That's what grief and loss does to you. You think you can hold it back but instead, you end up lashing out at others." Mantis said, knowing from experience she's done as such before.

"I think this is the anger stage. It's.....it's kinda like coping, you know? It's a crappy horrible way but you do it anyways to relieve just a bit of the pain." She explained.

"So she......she's mad at us? Does she blame us?" Bee asked.

Mantis shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. But keep in mind that she doesn't hold any malice towards us. She just has to get some of it out or it'll kill her from the inside.

"We all have a right to be angry- especially Sari. We're humane. We get mad, we cry, we scream and curse at the universe for being so unfair and cruel, we hit something to release the tension and we all make brash stupid decisions." She said.

"Like you kicking Sentinel in the ball bearings?" Bulkhead asked.

"I regret nothing." Mantis said shamelessly. "And yeah, kinda."

Silence overtook them as they tried to come up with a method to reach out to Sari without adding fuel to the fire or spreading it. They could only contain it for so long until they too got burned.

Then Mantis decided maybe instead of focusing on Sari's loss to overcome her grief.......maybe she has to focus on her own.

With that in mind, Mantis stood up and walked off purposefully, a femme on a mission.

"Hey, where're you going?" Bee asked.

"To talk to Sari." Mantis said.

"Pretty sure she doesn't wanna." Bulkhead oh so helpfully reminded her.

Mantis shook her helm. "Just me. One little girl to another. Please guys, let me try." She said.

"Good luck." Bee and Bulkhead said. If Mantis had a plan, they might as well wing it and see how the wind blows. And hey, if things go south at least they tried.

"......wait outside the room, ok? Far enough so you two seem respectful of privacy but close enough to tell when scrap hits the fan." She said. Better to have moral support at least.

And so the trio of Auto Teens set off towards Sari's room once more. In all honesty, they felt even more nervous than the time they had to fight against Megatron and the Decepticons not too long ago. The tension seriously felt more suffocating.

Mantis knocked on Sari's door and entered without waiting for permission.

"What do you want?" Sari grumbled, sitting up in her bed.

"To listen." Mantis said.

"To what?" Sari asked moodily. What was Mantis gonna do, sing her a lullaby?

"You willing to listen to another sob story?" Mantis asked.

Sari felt her temper flare. Was this the part where someone said 'oh, don't worry, you'll get better I mean, they lost someone and they did too,' or 'be thankful for what you have compared to others,' or all that 'it's part of God's will,'?

"I lost my dad too." Mantis began, sitting down in front of her. "I lost him in the blink of an eye. One day I was walking up, ready to begin another normal day and the next, a group of Decepticons ambushed us and killed him along with a few others who gave their lives to protect us." Better to get it out as straightforwardly earnest as possible and well....try to make it 'PG-13' since Sari was technically still a kid.

Sari blinked. Now that she thought about it....didn't Prowl once give her a peek into Mantis's childhood? Was Mantis herself telling her the rest now? She found herself listening with rapt attention.

"I almost died. I was forced to run- and that was the worst part. I _had_ to run because I was just a small, weak, naive little girl......I was the same age as you, actually." She decided to tell this as quickly and painlessly as possible. She didn't want to bore Sari and wanted to let her know that she truly wasn't alone.

"Two cons- deserters who ran from the fight- found me and tried to kidnap me. Use me as leverage. I ran and they shot me off a cliff." She saw Sari's eyes widen and her breath hitch.

"I don't remember much. Most of it's a blurr of pain. I just remember tumbling down the cliff, twisting my limbs and breaking my circuits and struts before finally stopping. I couldn't move or even cry out because that's how painful it was.....that's how broken I was. I felt myself ready to just.....give up and die already, to finally not have to put up with the harshness of being alone and in pain.

"But I was saved. At first, a part of me felt denial at how harsh life was- because what did I or my sire do to deserve any of it?; a part of me felt angry- angry at everyone because they didn't help us, angry at myself for being weak and pathetic and angry that.....that I couldn't just go offline and be reunited with Shifu." Mantis went on.

"You.....you wanted to...." Sari swallowed, unable to say it.

"To die? To go offline and join the Well? On one hand....yes. Sometimes I just want to see him again, I just want to not be alone anymore, I just want the pain to stop. But on the other hand? No, _frag no_. I knew if I did that, I would be spitting on his sacrifice for me. He risked his spark so I could live and I knew I could never throw my spark away because that's not what he would've wanted.

"I won't lie, Sari. There's no right or wrong way in grieving and grieving doesn't have a set schedule. You'll wallow in your misery in silence or you'll scream and cry and lash out and that's okay. If being angry at us means you aren't angry at yourself then go ahead. I'm not telling you all this because I pity you and they're not empty words to placate you. I'm telling you this because I _understand_. I had to endure this and I had to learn to live with it too.

"Chances are......this will never fully heal. There will always be scars. But know this- wounds _can heal_ and we're here to help you heal. We're here to listen if you want to get it all out; we're here to give you a shoulder to cry on and we're here to take care of you. You still have someone, Sari. So please....don't push them away. Having friends....having family who still care in moments like these isn't a privilege many have....it wasn't something I had.

"Please, Sari. Talk to us, reach out to us, let us know if you need help. This sucks, that's a fact. But that's why we're here- to help you through this scrap." Mantis finished.

Sari just sat there, digesting all this. She repeated what Mantis said and it struck her just how similar the femme truly was to her. All this time, Mantis had probably understood how she felt more than anyone.

And she tried to push her away.

Then she heard another two sets of footsteps and saw Bee and Bulkhead there too.

"What do you guys want?" she asked.

"Nothing." Bee replied.

"We just....wanted to know if you were ok." Bulkhead said.

"Ok?....if I'm ok?" Sari asked, cheeks turning red as she found herself snapping. All the loneliness, anger, failure and fear that she tried to ignore started to rise like a tidal wave.

"My _dad_ is missing. I lost control of his company. That Powell jerk is going to destroy everything good he ever worked for. I've been kicked out of the only home I've ever known and I don't even know if I _exist!_ You think I'm okay?!" she exploded.

Then her anger slowly faded and gave way to something else as the lump in her throat became too big to bear. Her loud voice filled with anger at the unfairness of it all faded and soon, her body was wracking with sobs as the tears flowed, turning her once angry red cheeks blotchy.

All the walls she tried to build up crumbled to show them the scared little girl left to face the world without her father, having to look at others and be reminded that she was different- that unlike them, she didn't exist.

Bee gently picked her up and let her sit there, crying in his cupped servos as her sobs resonated.

"Whoa, her eyes are leaking." Bulkhead said.

"It's called crying, Bulk." Mantis corrected gently.

Bee just smiled at her, gentle and reassuring. Mantis noted a more mature....understanding light in his optics, one she hasn't seen before until now.

"You let em leak as much as you need to. We're here and you're safe. So whatever it is, you can always talk to us. We'll listen." He told her.

"You're not alone, Sari. And we won't leave you. Not now, not ever. You don't have to face this alone." Mantis said.

"We'll protect you. And you'll always have a home right here with us." Bulkhead added.

Sari sniffled and looked at them through her tears. Her eyes were still sad and cracked but finally, _finally_ they were shining with hope and a bit of happiness, some of the darkness washed away now that she finally reached out and realized she won't ever be alone.

"Thank you." She said, voice hoarse and barely above a whisper.

Maybe she didn't exist....maybe she didn't have proof that she was her father's daughter....

But she didn't need any form of proof to know that she wasn't alone. She had friends.....family. And to them, she exists as a part of their world.

^^*************^^

Turns out, Optimus's 'gut feeling' was right. This was proven when he found out that Sentinel lost his head.

Literally.

Who would've thought it'd take seeing his ex-friend getting in over his head and actually having it detached from his body to give him that good a laugh?

He was very tempted to say 'I told you so' to the arrogant smug Elite Guard but didn't. He had to be the bigger bot and...well...... despite how rocky things are between them, Optimus knew he wouldn't be able to turn his back on someone who needs help anyways.

But there were definitely some amusing/memorable moments he'll never forget.

After finally finding Sentinel's body and having a scuffle with it- Optimus knew he'd never forget this. And even he had to admit being able to have a legitimate excuse to beat the scrap out of Sentinel's body and allowing him to release a good few stellar cycles worth of petty frustration and anger was pretty damn satisfying- they managed to subdue Masterson and reattach Sentinel's head back onto his body.

Unfortunately, Powell intervened and managed to worm him and Masterson a way out. Due to this, Masterson got off scot-free much to Optimus and Sentinel's chagrin.

But hey, at least Sentinel was back in one piece.

"I want to know, Sentinel Prime. What are these rumors about you 'losing your head'?" Ultra Magnus asked as both Primes stood at attention to give their respective reports.

It was clear Ultra Magnus was rather stupefied by the absurd rumors and Sentinel was trembling, barely able to contain his nerves. Already, the blue mech could see his entire career- all his life's hard work- about to go down the drain.

Then his saving grace came in the form of the last bot he ever expected.

Optimus Prime.

'What is that washout up to?!' he wondered but made no move to intervene.

"If I may, commander? Sentinel Prime bravely used himself as bait to draw the Headmaster out into the open where he and I could...capture him and destroy his secret lab." Optimus said. He snuck a glance at Sentinel, his mouth twitched upwards slightly in a knowing smile. Unable to think of any other solution, Sentinel just nodded along.

Sentinel won't admit it, but he was surprised by how decently smooth a goodie-two-shoes-lucky-glory bot like Optimus could lie on the spot.

"Good work, both of you. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must confer with Cybertron Command on a matter of great importance." Ultra Magnus dismissed. With that said, they both walked out.

"Sorry if I presumed to speak for you again, Sentinel." Optimus sighed, waiting for the rant Sentinel would no doubt go on to 'admonish' him for trying to 'go out of the scope of his programming'.

"Um, Optimus...there's something I-I...have to say." Sentinel said. Then he cleared his throat. "Thank you." He managed to say curtly and loud enough for Optimus to hear. 

Optimus started, surprised. He _did not_ see that coming....not in a hundred stellar cycles. "Wow. That must've hurt." He said instead.

"More than you know." Sentinel instantly agreed. Regardless, he reached out his servo and Optimus shook it. Both of their mouths twitched upwards slightly before they dropped it, not wanting to push it.

Optimus knew they were still far from friends- chances are, they would never be as close as they were back in their cadet days and frankly, Optimus's accepted that.

But he has gained solace knowing that they managed to mend some of the pieces. Small ones but intact ones nonetheless.


	6. Channel Combat

Mantis was many things- a nature-lover/tree hugger; an anime otaku; a sister; a friend; a ninjabot- with half-finished training that is; a rebel who hated abuse of authority- *koff* Chinhead *koff*; a bit of a gamer.....

And a morning person.

Sometimes she would wake up and laze around in her room before coming out to join the others or just sleep in after staying up late drawing/sketching or binge-watching anime though that rarely happened. Usually she'd wake up early and do some stretching, some meditation, some yoga- another human culture she's come to enjoy- or just get on with her day.

Or in this case, watch some nature documents.

"In the shadows of the forest lies an extraordinary world." The nature document said, showing her the glimpse of a mantis up close. "Where insects outnumber humans 200 to 1." Her optics ridges went up at that. Sure enough, the TV showed insect after insect up close- from centipedes and their multiple little spindly legs to a rhinoceros beetle with its strong horn to disciplined ants as one colony.

"Fascinating...." She said, leaning forward in her seat. She can see why Prowl seemed to only use the TV in order to indulge in shows like this.

"They rule the skies." A swarm of bees and locusts. "They roam the watery depths." A notonectidae. "And the rotting forest floor." A centipede snaking its way across the soil.

"Beings of true beauty, wonder....and deadliness. From strength in numbers." A colony of ants. "To stealthy camouflage." Her servo subconsciously went to her holographic projector. "These insects are truly-"

Suddenly, a yellow servo snatched the remote and switched the channel. Mantis jolted in shock as rock music blasted from the speakers, ambushing her audio receptors and bright flashing CGI colours blinding her.

She glared at the culprit.

Bumblebee.

She must've been really enamored by the nature documentary to have not noticed the yellow minibot come into her room.....or he was stealthier than she gave him credit for.

"Hey! I was watching that." She protested.

"Can't you ninjabots watch something that won't fry our circuits from boredom?" Bee asked.

She scowled and snatched the remote from him, switching back to her nature documentary.

"Hey!" he protested.

"This is _my_ TV and you're in _my_ room! What are you even doing here anyways? Why not watch from the main room?" she asked.

"I would but the doc banned me from it. He said and I quote," he cleared his throat and made his voice gruff and grouchy in an imitation of Ratchet. "'Stop lazing your tiny aft and waste away watching those slagging processor-numbing graphics that's gonna rust your already tiny processor! Pick your skid-plates up and go do something else somewhere else for once in yer life since you were a protoform!'" he recited.

"Then I suggest you do as he says before I say so myself." Mantis huffed.

Bee gasped. "You'd snitch on me?!" he asked, betrayed.

"If I have to." She said unapologetically.

"Seriously?! After that bonding moment we all shared?" he went on.

Mantis ignored him and decided to focus on her nature documentary.

"And so we watch as the still chrysalis finally moves, the new life within slowly coming out to reveal itself." She awed as the beautiful butterfly slowly emerged, its wings unfurling-

Only for her to once again be robbed by the annoyingly loud and unnecessarily loud rock video.

A red angry tick mark formed on her helm and she gritted her denta in annoyance. She whipped her dreads around and glared at Bee who had the audacity to just lounge there as he watched his show on _her_ TV in _her_ room!

Anime was one thing. Cartoons were one thing. Comedy and sit-coms were another. She usually didn't mind watching other channels.

But she _definitely did mind_ when someone changed a channel she was watching and enjoying without her permission. Much less so when she already made it clear she didn't want them to.

She snatched the remote back and switched the channels.

"Stop that. It's rude." She snapped.

"You sound like Prowl." Bee huffed.

"You make that sound like a bad thing." She drawled.

"Aw c'mon, Mantis! Can't you watch something that won't bore both of us into a stasis nap?" he asked.

"Can't you go bug someone else?" Mantis asked, getting genuinely annoyed now.

"I will, after my show." He said.

"You can watch my show after I watch mine." With that said, she crossed her servos, remote still held in one, and sat back, contented to just enjoy her nature documentary and ignore Bee. Who knows? Maybe he'll eventually get tired of waiting and leave.

^^*************^^

She was wrong- oh so horribly wrong!

"GIVE ME BACK MY REMOTE YOU YELLOW SATAN!" she screeched as she skated forward, full speed and tackled the yellow fiend down, sending both of them down to the ground.

"NEVER!" he yelled, his grip on the remote not loosening one bit.

They both grappled on the floor and soon, both were pouring all their strength into a tug-of-war with the poor remote as the rope in this chaotic battle for dominance.

"It's my remote! You didn't even ask so you're technically stealing!" Mantis grunted as she tried to pry the remote from his stubborn grasp.

"What happened to sharing is caring?!" Bee asked, trying to pull the remote away from her vice-like grasp.

"Sharing is one thing! Stealing is another!" she shot back.

"Well I'm asking now!" Bee pointed out.

"And your request is denied!" Mantis snapped.

Then finally, the stalemate was broken as they went stumbling back. Much to Bee's triumph, he still had the remote in his grasp.

"Ha! I win." He said smugly. He tried to switch the channel only to realize he couldn't. He pressed the button again and again but the channel didn't change. He smacked the remote to try and jumpstart it. Frowning, he turned around and it was then he noticed the batteries were gone!

"Missing something?" he turned to see a smug Mantis holding two batteries in her servo.

Before she could keep it in her subspace, Bee flung himself at her with a battle cry and soon, both of their servos were shoving and scrambling for the two batteries that kept rolling out of their grasp.

"C'mere you little- gotcha!" Bee cried as he caught one, only for Mantis's servo to slam down on his helm, pushing his faceplate onto the ground as she scrambled over him to snatch it from his servo before stretching out and grabbing the other before it rolled away.

"Ha! Gotcha!" she cried in triumph. Then her grip loosened as she burst into giggles, her body trembling and the batteries falling from her grasp.

"Tickle attaaaaaaaaaack!" Bee cried like he was a Pokemon as he relentlessly tickled Mantis.

Unwilling to give up, Mantis's servo shot out and began to tickle Bee too. Soon, both were grappling on the ground, laughing hysterically as they tried to overpower the other via tickling.

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF CYBERTRON IS GOING ON?!" two voices asked.....

Both were voices that spelled their death warrants.

All laughing stopped and they froze. Slowly, the two younglings turned to see a pissed off Ratchet and a just as pissed off Prowl standing there, the later seemingly a click away from pouncing Bee and ripping him apart.

If looks could kill, Bee's pretty sure he'd be offline and rusting in the Pits by now.

"Bumblebee....what are you doing to my sister?" Prowl grounded out through gritted denta, his voice even but with a dangerous roaring undertone to it.

From his- the _older brother's_ perspective- he saw Bumblebee on the ground with Mantis- his _sister_ and _only_ family- in a very........too close for comfort position.

One _he_ sure as the Pits and Unicron and Primus wasn't comfortable with! Not now and not _ever!_

"I-it's not what it looks like! I swear!" Bee said, scrambling back up. The distance he put between him and Mantis didn't make Prowl relent on his terrifying glare at all.

"We were fighting!" Mantis said.

"As if that's any better!" Ratchet snapped. Then he his nasal ridge and sighed. "Bee when I said to do something somewhere else, I did not mean to come in here and harass Mantis!"

"One, I _wasn't_ harassing her! Two, how am I the only one at fault?!" Bee asked.

"That's what I wanna know! What were you two doing?" Ratchet asked.

"This cyber-clown barged into my room, snatched my remote and kept bugging me when I just wanted to watch my nature documentary!" Mantis explained.

Prowl sighed. God, younglings were a hassle. This was petty. Petty and annoying and so unnecessarily troublesome, then again, they were kids at spark so he wasn't too surprised.

"Couldn't you have recorded both channels then take turns later on?" he suggested, massaging his nasal ridge.

They both paused.

"...........we.....never thought of that?" Bee said.

"We were kinda focused on the fight." Mantis said.

"The fight over a remote?" Prowl asked, holding up said device they were fighting over. Then he looked and also realized the remote was missing the batteries. "It doesn't even have any batteries." He noted.

"That's cuz they're right here." Ratchet said, picking them up. "And I think it's safe to say _neither_ of you deserve this privilege."

With that said, the medic placed the batteries back in the remote and turned the TV off before keeping the remote in his subspace.

Mantis's jaw dropped open in shock. Then she glared at Bee. "Thanks a lot!" she said sarcastically.

"Aw come on, doc bot, isn't that a bit overkill?" Bee asked.

"Memory serves, both of you are supposed to be out patrolling since this morning." Ratchet reminded them.

Both of them paled as they remembered their forgotten turns to patrol.

"Now as I said before....." Ratchet took a deep vent. "STOP LAZING YOUR TINY AFTS AND WASTE AWAY WATCHING THOSE SLAGGING PROCESSOR-NUMBING GRAPHICS THAT'S GONNA FRY YER CORE PROGRAMMING! PICK YOUR SKID-PLATES UP AND GO DO SOMETHING PRODUCTIVE SINCE THE DAY YOU TWO KIDS WERE PROTOFORMED!

"IS. THAT. CLEAR?!" he boomed.

"SIR, YES SIR!" they both squeaked before hightailing it out of the room.

Prowl watched, half-impressed half-terrified.

"Sometimes, you gonna lay it down rough and hard to get em' to smoothen out." Ratchet grunted.

"Noted." Prowl answered seriously. Though he didn't know if he could ever pull off yelling like that- it wasn't his style and frankly....it would be _very_ out of character, which would just be weird.

With the problem solved, Prowl walked out of the room. Ratchet waited until his pede-steps faded off into the distance before taking the remote out.

"Time to put this thing to good use." He said before turning on the TV to watch Grey's Anatomy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mantis may be the 'mature' one, but keep in mind she's still a kid at spark and so is Bee. Ratchet is like the angry sergeant grandpa and Prowl is the oldest brother that tries.  
> And yes, I can see Ratchet sometimes watching Grey's Anatomy for research purposes.


	7. Mission Accomplished

"Ironhide to Ultra Magnus!" the designated Autobot called urgently. There were the definite sounds of gunfire in the transmission feed as a battle raged on behind him. Judging by the urgency and slight panic in Ironhide's tone, it was pretty clear who was on the winning side.

"We are under attack by Decepticon forces!" he paused to wince as a particularly loud and dangerously close shot was fired. "They came outta nowhere! Our spacebridge is destroyed! Request immediate backup!" then there was a bright flash before the feed was cut off to static.

Ultra Magnus turned off the screen. "We're getting reports of Decepticon uprisings like this from all along the rim of the galaxy." He said, turning around to address the obvious issue at hand.

"Sounds like the cons are getting wind that their leader not being as offline as they thought he was." Jazz said.

"Wonder where they got that idea?" Sentinel asked snidely, sending an accusing look towards Optimus.

"Megatron's always been the figurehead. Sides, even if he stayed offline in the Pits it was only a matter of time until someone used him as a martyr excuse to hype up the cons." Drift pointed out.

"You'd know how your ex-master is, wouldn't you-" Sentinel began but stopped when he saw a blade hovering an inch away from his faceplate.

"He is _not_ my master." Drift hissed, his optics dark and dangerous. "Say that again and it'll be the last thing that ever leaves that pathetic piece of scrap of an excuse for a-" Ultra Magnus cut Drift's threat off.

"That doesn't matter." He said sternly, sending a warning glare at Drift who thankfully lowered his blade. "The point is we're needed elsewhere. Optimus Prime, prepare your crew for departure in 12 megacycles."

Optimus's optics widened at the order. 'Departure?!' he thought in horror as it sunk in.

"B-but sir, what about the Decepticons on _this_ planet?" he pointed out. He didn't want to take any chances. Besides, there isn't anything stopping the Decepticons from ever coming back here anyways.

"Sentinel Prime informs me there are no Decepticons on this planet." Ultra Magnus said coolly, not at all moved by Optimus's protest.

"Well, with all due respect-" Optimus didn't get a chance to try again as Sentinel cut him off- surprise, surprise.

"You'll get a chance to tell your side of the story in a _public inquiry_ back at Cybertron Command." Sentinel snapped.

Optimus instantly perceived the true meaning behind that. "You mean a _court martial_." He scoffed.

"More like an opportunity to set the record straight." Ultra Magnus clarified.

Drift snorted loudly, causing all optics to fall on him.

"You guys are basically saying we should lie to the public's face or 'protect' them from the truth or whatever way you wanna put it for your conscience." He said, crossing his servos, optics seemingly bored but disappointed. "Using deception for the Decepticons....wow." he slowly clapped a sarcastic rhythm.

Ultra Magnus glared at Drift who wasn't fazed in the slightest. Optimus couldn't help but be impressed.

"Are we seriously not gonna address the obvious answer here?" Sentinel said.

"That you're a horrible Prime?" Drift said with a smirk.

Sentinel glared at him then stepped closer to the ex-Decepticon, sneering down at him accusingly.

"I find it funny. One moment, you're sitting on your can on a moon colony then all of a sudden you show up on this ship and tag along to this organic mudball where Megatron is supposedly online and functioning.

"Then now we've got a buncha Decepticreep uprisings all over the place....just after you came here with us." He sneered.

Drift dropped the sarcastic laid-back facade and his optics darkened with a dangerous edge.

"Are you calling me a traitor? A mole?" Drift asked.

"I dunno, _are_ you?" Sentinel challenged to him face to face.

"Stand down, Sentinel Prime." Ultra Magnus ordered.

"But sir, you can't deny the circumstances-" Jazz intervened, Primus bless the cool level-headed ninjabot.

"Sentinel, that's enough." Jazz said, stepping between them and pushing Sentinel away to give Drift some space. "The problem ain't getting solved anytime soon if we all keep jabbing at one another playing the blame game."

"I agree with Drift, commander." Optimus said. "He understands how this works more than any of us. Surely this shows that-"

"It shows that if word gets out Megatron truly is online and the AllSpark is destroyed, it will cause panic among our fellow Autobots and embolden the enemy further." Ultra Magnus said, still standing by what he said.

A part of Optimus couldn't help but be slightly disgusted by the fact that the Magnus was willing to keep such a huge fact from the public. He didn't need to be in politics to know just how bad this could backfire on them if the truth were to come out.

"But the truth is-"

"It is our _duty_ to squash these rumors once and for all." Ultra Magnus said, his voice firm and expression stern telling Optimus there was no further argument in the matter.

"Understood?" he asked coolly with slightly narrowed optics.

Though still outraged, Optimus knew there was no point in wasting his breath arguing further. Reluctantly, he saluted in compliance.

"Yes sir, understood." He said reluctantly.

With that said, Optimus was dismissed leaving the Elite Guard.

Drift decided it was time for him to speak up once more.

"What's the point of this? Aren't they emboldened already?" Drift said. "Sir with all due respect, if the public finds out we kept the truth from them in the first place, the cons will use it as an excuse to turn the tables on us even more and paint us as the bad guys.

"That's how they work, ok? Deception. Twisting the truth to justify their actions and paint themselves as misunderstood lost spirits fighting for what's right and all that scrap."

Drift agreed with Optimus. If he was being honest, a part of him already held a small respect for the other Prime that surprised even himself. It wasn't easy for bots- much less another Prime- to grow on him like that.

Yet, in the short time he's seen Optimus, he could already tell the bot was a good one with a good spark and a more than capable processor in that helm of his- the exact opposite of Sentinel. Mantis was right, Optimus was a good leader and a good friend with good character. He had an honest streak to him too.

Pity he couldn't say the same for the other bots sans Jazz in the room with him right now.

Ultra Magnus sighed. "Drift, I value your advice and insight of the Decepticons-"

"Then why aren't you listening to me?" he challenged.

Ultra Magnus thumped the butt of his hammer slightly and his optic ridges furrowed slightly, a sign that showed Drift the Magnus's patience was thinning and he better watch it.

"Our duty is to protect the Autobot Commonwealth. Right now we are trying to buy time to defuse the problem before it grows. If we can defuse it before word gets out then in the meantime, we have to prevent mass panic. Causing early panic over a situation we have not fully looked into will only cause unnecessary trouble for all of us and cause chaos the Decepticons _want us to cause for them_. Right now, that is the last thing we need to deal with.

"Is that clear, Drift?" Ultra Magnus asked the same way he did with Optimus.

Drift sighed. "Fine." He muttered.

Ultra Magnus raised an optic ridge and tilted his helm slightly.

Swallowing his pride and disagreement, Drift repeated himself louder. "Yes, sir."

This was exactly why he preferred to go solo.

^^*************^^

The rest of Optimus's teammates weren't taking the news any better than him or Drift either.......especially Sari.

"First I lose my dad and now you guys?" she asked, evidently heartbroken by the fact she once again have to lose more family.

"I'm afraid orders are orders." Optimus said sadly.

"Well, they're stupid orders!" she huffed.

Mantis agreed wholeheartedly on that. Not the first time, she was disappointed but not surprised by the choices the Elite Guard had to make sometimes. A small part of her processor told her there was a pretty obvious way out of this. A way to leave it and have no part in it but.....

What did she risk losing if she did?

"Listen up small human, Autobots are not organic babysitters. The sooner you bunch of bolts learn that the better." Sentinel butted in with his usual tact. Mantis's mood soured even more.

"They aren't a bunch of bolts! They're my friends and I need them!" Sari cried, tears springing. She ran off, not wanting her friends to see her cry...... _again_ \- hasn't she already done enough of that? How much more of a burden could she be to them? How much more could life take away from her?

Didn't they promise not to leave her?

"Sari, wait!" Bee called but she either ignored him or was too in pain to hear him.

"This isn't easy for her, Bumblebee. Give her time." Optimus reassured.

"Unfortunately time is something you bots don't have. As of now, you're all vital components in the war against the Decepticons." Sentinel said.

All of them straightened with their respective 'yes sirs', Ratchet's long ingrained soldier habits even showing as he saluted.

Except Mantis who merely crossed her servos, lips pressed into a thin line as she frowned at nothing in particular.

Sentinel bent down so he was face to face with her.

"Did you not hear what I just said?" he asked.

"I stopped listening the moment I saw you." She said, turning to the side so she didn't have to look at him.

"Listen kid, you wanna pout here on this mudball and look pretty?" he asked.

"No, I want to stay here for Sari because I made a promise and unlike you _I don't leave friends behind_." Mantis snapped.

Sentinel briefly winced as though she physically slapped her then his optics hardened.

"Like it or not, orders are orders and you have your duty as an Autobot to comply." He said.

"Then I quit."

Those three simple words carried a hundred volumes. For three clicks, everyone was silent, allowing the words she uttered to travel from their audio receptors to their sparks.

Then it shattered.

"WHAT?!" a good few of them said at once.

Mantis wasn't moved. She stared at them, face stoic but eyes firm with resolution.

"I'm not officially part of their repair crew. I have no experience in repairing spacebridges. I just so happened to be at the right place at the right time." She pointed out.

"Neither was Prowl but he's still with us!" Bulkhead protested.

"And now that we don't have the AllSpark, our spacebridge is the one advantage we still have over the cons and we need you repair grunts to keep em up and running.

"I don't care if you're a repair bot or not. You. Are. An. Autobot. And Ultra Magnus has ordered all Autobots on this miserable organic planet to leave." Sentinel gritted out.

"Then I'll go Neutral."

If she thought she caused one helluva ruckus earlier, that was a mere tinkle in comparison to this.

"Are you turning your back on the Autobot cause?! You'll be labelled a traitor and charged for high treason for war drafting!" Sentinel screeched.

Prowl winced. He still remembers how not too long ago he held similar charges with the risk of the stockades to boot. Now his fear of that came back tenfold but not for him, rather for his sister.

"If doing what's right and staying by Sari's side protecting her means becoming a traitor then I'll gladly carry that title for the rest of my life." Mantis said, chin held high in determined defiance.

She knew the gamble she was taking.....but a part of her couldn't care less.

She had nothing for her back on Cybertron. As far as everyone was concerned, she was MIA- heck, she was _KIA_ , she may as well have never existed. Even the Cyberninja Corps thought of her as offline. Oh sure, maybe Drift and Jazz could pull a few strings but......

Mantis knew she couldn't go back to Cybertron, much less the dojo that was once her home with the knowledge of who she had to turn her back on.

"Sister, what are you doing?" Prowl asked. "You aren't thinking straight, for Primus's sake, consider the consequences of your actions for once!" he hissed.

"I'm sorry, brother. But I made a promise and I plan on keeping it." She said firmly. "What more do I have to lose?"

"Your rights once I drag your miserable whiny skid-plates to a court martial!" Sentinel snarled.

"Then you'll have to drag both of us!" Bee said, getting in between Sentinel and Mantis.

"Bumblebee..." Optimus groaned. He didn't like these orders any less than them but the last thing they all needed was another disagreement that could tear them apart.

"I'm not leaving Sari either." He said firmly. "She's practically an orphan now, we can't just leave! What are we gonna do, leave her on the streets to fend for herself?"

"We'll find someone to take care of her." Optimus said.

"Who?" the two younglings challenged.

"We don't exactly have many options." Prowl pointed out.

"We don't have time for this!" Sentinel snapped. "Listen, like it or not, Autobot or not, _all of you_ are coming with us. Either you comply or I will have no choice but to use force." He took out a pair of stasis cuffs for emphasis.

"You can't do that if they turn Neutral. If they become Neutrals then they are no longer Autobots. It also means Autobot authority such as yours means little to them." Prowl intervened.

"Oh so you plan on jumping the ship with them too?" Sentinel challenged. "Fine, then I'll just have to drag all three of you with me!"

"You aren't dragging any of em' off like criminals anywhere." Ratchet growled. "That's abuse of authority."

"Oh only now you realize that?" Mantis said sarcastically.

"That's enough!" Optimus snapped. Instantly, they all snapped to attention, even Sentinel who was briefly taken aback by the volume Optimus used. Optimus gazed at Mantis and Bumblebee sternly and shook his helm.

"Bumblebee, Mantis, stand down." Then his faceplate and tone softened. "Please."

Sentinel scoffed at how soft and lenient Optimus was with his crew.

Mantis and Bee glanced at one another, both unwilling to abandon their friend but at the same time, didn't want to lose other friends for said friend too.

Reluctantly, both complied. Bee slumped and Mantis huffed, looking away, unable to look at either Primes. Bulkhead who had been nervously watching by the sidelines to see how the wind blew finally spoke up.

"W-what if the cons come back anyways?" he asked.

"Exactly!" Mantis said. "And they still have Professor Sumdac."

"Oh please, as if they'd keep an organic around. Chances are the guy's already kicked the bucket." Sentinel scoffed.

Mantis was applauded by how insensitive he was about something as important as this. Steam was practically hissing out of her audio receptors and Prowl quickly grabbed her shoulder to ground her, lest she says something to cause more trouble.

"No he's not!" Bee protested. "As if you would know." He growled at the mech despite his size.

Sentinel sighed. Looks like Optimus wasn't the only insubordinate one. It's a wonder he can tolerate these two brats, they're a pain in the aft like scraplets!

"Optimus, a little word of advice." He said and leaned closer so only Optimus could hear him. "Do what Ultra Magnus wants."

"You mean lie?" Optimus said with a sarcastic huff, making it clear he still disagreed with the Magnus's orders.

"Cut the high and mighty routine for once in your life cycle." Sentinel said. Maybe Optimus just needed a little more convincing to see the benefits this could bring to him. "Look, I have some pull with Cybertron Command." He casually slung a servo across Optimus's shoulder.

Optimus resisted the urge to shove him away. Already, he could sense where this was going.

"If ya keep quiet about Megatron _and_ the AllSpark _and_ take the fall for leading your crew AWOL and if possible keep those two whiny protoforms in check, I can get you reinstated in the Elite Guard." Sentinel said.

Optimus called it. But if there's anything else he's learned after everything he's done and been through.....he honestly didn't care whether he was a repair bot or an Elite Guard.

What he did care about was doing what's right, and that's either telling the truth or finding some way to drag his heels long enough to convince the Elite Guard that Earth needs their protection against the Decepticons.

"That sounds a lot like a bribe." He said to Sentinel.

"Well call it a favor for not mentioning my little...'incident' with the Headmaster." Sentinel whispered to him.

Optimus took his hand off his shoulder and out of his space before jabbing him in the chassis. "Well unlike you, Sentinel, I don't think saving my own hard drive's more important than protecting the truth." He said firmly. With that said he walked away, his choice made.

"Then you leave me no choice. Optimus Prime, I am placing you in protective custody until our departure from Earth!" Sentinel ordered.

Optimus froze then turned around, indignation rising like a volcano ready to erupt. Was Sentinel seriously-

"What?! You can't be serious!" Optimus snapped, optics narrowed daring him to push his authority further.

"I'm not gonna hafta use the stasis cuffs on you, am I, Optimus?" Sentinel asked, taking said devices out with a smug smirk on his faceplate.

"What the- you might as well just say you're arresting him!" Mantis protested.

"And I will if he doesn't comply and the same goes for you, lil missy!" then he jabbed her chassis so hard, she almost stumbled as he bent down so he was face to face with her once more.

"So stick within your scope programming and watch that glossa of yours or I'll keep it in check for you!" he growled before swaggering off. Mantis glared at him hatefully as he left.

God she wished she could've just kicked him in the ball bearings again.

^^*************^^

Sari sighed and slumped down in the beanbag chair in her room, head hung low. She was......tired. She was just so _tired_ of everything at this point. She was tired of life.

"But we're her family! We can't just abandon her." Bee protested again. "Who's gonna take care of her when we're gone?"

"And we can't just ditch her in the system. That might not even work out without that legal paperwork stuff." Mantis pointed out.

"We need a human we can trust." Ratchet said.

"Who?" Mantis asked.

^^*************^^

"Absolutely NOT!" Captain Fanzone said. It was quite a comical sight- seeing the usual serious brawny no-nonsense police captain saying no to a little kid like the plague while dressed in a bathrobe.

"Come on, captain. She's a good kid!" Bee said.

"You won't even know she'd around." Bulkhead added.

Sari peeked out from behind Bee's pede and gave a small pout, adding to her innocent little girl facade.

"Why me?" Fanzone asked. When he became....acquainted with these bots the last thing he expected to ever help them do is watch over a kid! What was he their human babysitter? Nanny McPhee?

"You're tops on the list of all the humans we know personally." Bee said.

"Although it is....kinda a short list." Bulkhead admitted.

"And it does include Prometheus Black and Nanosec." Prowl also admitted.

"And Professor Princess and Henry Masterson." Mantis added. 'And Argent.' She remembered in her processor.

Ok, maybe she was being a bit selfish here letting them all dump the responsibility on Fanzone but.......Mantis didn't want to burden Argent with a kid to take care. As motherly and responsible and caring as she was.....she wasn't young.

And Mantis felt better knowing Sari was with someone like Fanzone who could keep her safe from cons- more or less- and human threats.

"But still, you're number one!" Bee said with a thumbs up.

"Come on, captain....you wanna leave her in the system?" Mantis tried a different tact.

It did the trick. Fanzone may not have liked kids, but what he didn't like more was the foster system. He knew it was meant to help kids but sometimes it does as much harm as good too..........

Oh curse his conscience.

He sighed. God, this is why he hates machines.

^^*************^^

Meanwhile Optimus had to stay stuck with Sentinel under his 'protective custody' on the Elite Guard flagship- the Steelhaven.

"Face it, Optimus. This deal is the only way you're ever gonna get your career back on track. And rid yourself of the stench of those glitch-detailed losers you've been commanding." Sentinel whispered to him out of the corner of his mouth.

"What about the stench of the lies you're asking me to tell?" Optimus shot back.

"No one's asking you to lie!" Sentinel snapped.

Ultra Magnus briefly glanced back and both Primes quickly straightened their composure. The moment the Magnus's attention was no longer on them, Sentinel leaned to the side slightly to whisper to Optimus.

"Look, just confirm what our scanners have been telling us all along. There are _no Decepticons on Earth_." He repeated.

If only they all knew at that very moment outside the Steelhaven, said Decepticons were stealing their ship's tachyon transmitter.

Decepticon activity was happening right under their noses and whether or not Optimus knew that, he did know for a fact if he didn't find some way to prove his point sooner or later well.....

He didn't want to dwell on the unsavory consequences.

"I strongly urge you to reconsider..." Ultra Magnus said. He too was trying to convince Optimus to play ball until they could defuse the problem.

Before the discussion could go on, Jazz piped in.

"Commander, the ship's sensors have detected a major spike in AllSpark energy." He reported.

"Probably another one of those fragments. I'll go check it out." Sentinel said.

"Negative. Stay here and keep your optics on Optimus Prime. Jazz, Drift and I will report back on our findings." Ultra Magnus ordered.

"I won't mind switching places with Sentinel." Drift offered casually. "Clearly something as important as the AllSpark ain't meant for a freelancer like me." Drift sent a subtle glance towards Optimus who got the message.

But like they say- with age comes wisdom and Ultra Magnus got an inkling of what Drift and Optimus might be planning.

"That's a direct order, Drift." The Magnus said firmly.

Drift shrugged and sent Optimus an apologetic glance. Welp, least he tried. 'At least I'll get some more action before I leave this place.' He mused.

"Transform and roll out." Ultra Magnus ordered.

Transforming into their respective alt-modes, they drove off leaving a disgruntled Sentinel and a pensive Optimus.

"Jazz and even the ex-con get all the action and I'm stuck here playing nursemaid to an insubordinate washout." Sentinel complained.

But for once, Optimus didn't register the passive insult at all. If anything, he was more focused on the sudden AllSpark fragment that showed up.

Pressing a button, he zoomed in on the feed and noticed the AllSpark was placed on such an open exposed area. If it been there all along, shouldn't they have picked up something long ago?

"Huh, our sensors didn't pick up any AllSpark energy surges the last time a fragment turned up. Only Sari's key was able to detect it. It's almost as if someone wants us to find this fragment." Optimus said, his optics narrowing in suspicion.

'Wait.' If this was a trap then it was a no-processor to chalk up who's the culprit behind it.

"Running infrared scan on that cloud-bank." Optimus decided. Sure enough, the scan picked up the silhouette of a very familiar harrier jet hovering over the train.

"Starscream." Optimus realized. Then finally, all of it clicked into place. For once, Optimus hated how right he was at times and how it showed.

"Sentinel, you have to stop them. They're walking right into a Decepticon ambush!" Optimus said.

"When are you gonna get it through your thick processor?" Sentinel huffed, annoyed they had to go through this again. "There are no Decepticons on this planet so keep your audio unit shut or I'll do it for ya." He snapped, taking out the stasis cuffs to make it clear he'd do good on his warning.

Optimus slumped, seemingly given up. Then an idea came to his processor. His mouth twitched up and he smirked at Sentinel- his smirk challenging, cocky and even a bit mocking.

"I'd like to see ya try you worthless crankshaft!" Optimus taunted.

Sentinel gritted his denta, optics narrowing as his body trembled in barely suppressed anger. Then it seemed to do the trick as the anger reared its ugly head.

"That's it!" he roared.

Sentinel charged straight towards Optimus. Then the next thing he knew, he was of his pedes and the world was spinning.

Taking a move out from his academy days, Optimus used Sentinel's charging momentum against him and flipped him over his shoulder, at the same time twisting the stasis cuffs in his grasp to slap them onto Sentinel's wrists instead.

With that done, Optimus walked off.

"You put me in stasis lock?!" Sentinel cried in outrage when his entire body froze and refused to move.

"Well somebody's gotta stop Ultra Magnus from making a deadly mistake." Optimus shot back. Then he transformed and drove off leaving Sentinel trapped in a rather awkward position restrained by his own stasis cuffs.

"When I get through with you, Optimus, there won't be enough left to salvage for parts!" Sentinel yelled after him.

But Optimus was already gone and frankly, Sentinel's threats were the least of his worries.

^^*************^^

The rest of the Autobots watched as Sari and Fanzone sat by the swings in a small park. They were a respectful distance away so Sari and Fanzone could get more.....acquainted with each other.

"How do you feel about bedtimes?" Sari asked, breaking the silence between them.

"What?" Fanzone asked, perplexed.

"Cuz I'm not reeeaaal big on em. In fact I think I should be able to stay up as late as I want. I also need my own phone. Oh yeah, and we should talk about my allowance cuz I really need a big one-"

Sari got no further. At some point Fanzone began to tremble before the swing broke under his weight.......at least she hoped the fault lied in flimsy construction material.

"This is why I hate kids." Fanzone grumbled.

Then all the Autobots comm links went off. Answering it, Optimus's voice filed in.

"Autobots! We need to mobilize immediately. The Elite Guard is walking into a Decepticon trap." Optimus said.

"Why is this _our_ problem? The Elite Guard has done nothing but bust our solenoids since they got here." Bee said.

"I say we leave the pros to do the job instead of 'repair grunts' like us." Mantis agreed.

Yeah, they were being petty but can you blame them?

"Doing what's right is more important than our personal feelings right now." Optimus scolded.

"Prime's right." Ratchet said. "Let's move it!"

Mantis huffed but transformed along with them and drove off to rendezvous with Optimus and save the Elite Guard.

"Hey, where are they going?" Sari asked.

"No idea. But I am _not_ gonna let em wreck my city again." Fanzone said. In an unspoken agreement, both human allies entered Fanzone's car and drove after them.

"The Elite Guard's not responding to my emergency calls. We'll have to cut across town, en route them off." Optimus said.

Taking a sudden turn, they drove down through another road on the highway. Not wanting to lose them, Fanzone yanked the wheel to the side to follow. Tyres screeched against gravel and a truck blared its horn but they managed to keep up with the Autobots.

Meanwhile up in the sky, Starscream wasn't the only Decepticon hovering amongst the cloud.

"The spike in AllSpark energy appears to be emanating from that train." Megatron noted.

"It's fortunate we picked up ze signal so easily." Blitzwing remarked.

"Perhaps a bit too fortunate." Megatron said warily. If there's anything he's learned, it's to always second-guess luck, especially if it shows up to you just like that.

"A trap? Laid by ze Autobots?" Blitzwing asked as he spotted the two cars that were definitely Autobots driving along the train tracks.

"Or by another Decepticon." Megatron said, noticing a very familiar harrier jet flying a few altitudes below them. "An extremely persistent Decepticon who refuses to stay offline." He growled when he recognized the treacherous nuisance known as Starscream.

Down below, the Autobots were more focused on the AllSpark fragment stuck on that train that was zooming at worryingly fast speeds.

"The AllSpark fragment is going to overload the vehicle's engine. We must remove it before the entire thing explodes!" Ultra Magnus said.

Inside, the humans were crying in terror, fear running rampant as they screamed, cried, yelled, screeched and shouted for help.

"Stay cool, humans!" Jazz said transforming and running beside the train briefly. "We got it under control." He reassured.

Then he agilely jumped up, flipping in mid-air before landing steadily on top of the train. Drift transformed and landed behind him. Taking his nunchaku out, Jazz tried to knock the AllSpark fragment out to no avail.

"Move!" Drift said. Then he jammed his falchion sword in and tried to use it like a crowbar to get it out. "Come....on..." he gritted but his blade slipped out, the fragment still firmly in place. Glancing down, he was surprised to see the tip of his blade chipped.

"Jazz, Drift, stand back!" Ultra Magnus ordered.

Raising his Magnus hammer, he banged it against the fragment in an attempt to dislodge it.

"Are you trying to disperse it into smaller bits, commander?!" Drift asked.

"It's no good, commander. That Small Spark doesn't wanna budge!" Jazz said.

Ultra Magnus raised his hammer one more time to try but before he could, the AllSpark glowed brightly, releasing a surge of energy that knocked them off the speeding train.

Drift grunted as he landed on the ground. Groaning, he slowly got back up. Taking his scanner out, his optics widened when he saw what was up ahead.

"Frag, there's another train up ahead heading towards this one! We don't stop it, they're gonna collide and kill double the humans." Drift said.

"Drift-" before Ultra Magnus could give any orders, Drift was already off.

'Him and his solo act.' Jazz thought as he groaned from the slight ache on the dent he no doubt had on his behind.

Drift drove as fast as he could and much to his surprise, he saw Optimus and his crew up ahead. A part of him was glad they were here- orders be damned- he had a feeling they could definitely use some help.

Transforming back, he wasted no time getting straight to the point.

"There's another train up ahead. We don't do something-"

"Both will collide and go boom and humans splat." Mantis blurted out.

"Yeah, pretty much." Drift said.

Optimus didn't waste time and immediately laid out the plan. Drift had to give Optimus credit for being able to keep his cool and think of a plan and course of action for whom and whom so quickly.

"Prowl! Uncouple the passenger cars and get the humans away from danger. Bumblebee, Sari! Try to use the key to pull out that AllSpark fragment. Mantis, Drift! Take care of the other train." Optimus ordered.

"Just the two of us?" Drift asked.

"It's a normal train. We just have to slow it down." Mantis said. "Come on, we'll take a shortcut!" she said, urgently grabbing his servo.

Drift nodded. He didn't mind following their lead for now. Besides, not like he was an Elite Guard bot anyways. And he'd take Optimus's leadership over Sentinel's nonexistent one on any stellar cycle.

Transforming, he followed Mantis and they all zoomed off to perform their respective tasks.

"The rest of us will try to slow the engine down!" Optimus told Bulkhead and Ratchet.

^^*************^^

"I thought humans put those up to tell us to stop?" Drift pointed out when he realized Mantis was leading him straight through a street barricade.

"It's a shortcut." She said.

They drove on and on until Drift saw that they were about to drive straight off an unfinished highway overpass!

"Hang onto your pipes!" Mantis said, making no move to slow down. In fact, the young femme just went faster.

Changing gear, Drift did the same and they drove straight off. For a moment, they felt weightless as though suspended in mid-air before gravity took hold and they went falling down and down, transforming back into bi-pedal form mid-way.......

Landing right onto the train they were supposed to slow down.

"Kid, you're a genius!" Drift said, gripping onto the top of the train to stop himself from flying off again.

"Tell me something I don't know." Mantis said. Though deep down she had to admit, she was surprised the train just so happen to be passing under them when they drove off. Looks like luck was on their side.

"You can handle the engine?" Drift asked.

"I learned from the best." Mantis yelled back over her shoulder as she dashed off.

Drift smiled and wasted no time using his sword to slice the passenger car off. With the passenger train detached, it slowed to a halt.

Up ahead, Mantis used her tessen to rip through the exterior metal plating to see the engine inside. Grabbing the edges of the tear, she forced it to become a bigger hole and dropped an explosive disk inside.

BOOM!

There was a muffled sound of explosion as the disk went off, messing up the engine with a tremor shuddering through the entire train car and causing the train to come to a jarring halt that nearly threw her straight off.

Mantis yelped as she was tossed forward but grabbed onto the dome of the train to stop herself from falling off. Releasing her grip, she lightly dropped down onto the ground no more than an inch away.

"Phew, now that's over with." Then she dusted her servos only to turn around and see the AllSpark train still speeding towards them. "Or not."

"Bumblebee, Sari, get off! The engine's going to blow!" Prowl yelled from his side. Then the ninjabot's optics widened when he saw Mantis up ahead, another train behind her- though it wasn't moving. "And you're going to crash!"

"Got it!" Sari said as she finally managed to extract the fragment using her key.

"Now get the he!l off!" they heard Mantis yell.

Both their head/helm snapped up to see them about to crash into another train right smack in front of theirs.

"We're gonna crash!" Bee yelled while Sari gasped. An on point collision like this- even with one of the trains not moving- would spell disaster. Or death.

They both screamed and Sari felt Bee wrap his servos around her to offer protection from the oncoming crash as the trains collided-

Only for them to come to a jarring halt.

Sari cracked an eye open and saw Ratchet using his magnets ahead to force the train back while Bulkhead clutched onto the rear with Optimus's grappler- the cable wrapped around Bulkhead's waist and pulled as taut as a bowstring to stop the huge green Autobot from speeding off with the train- anchoring to bring the train to a halt and prevent their demise.

"Don't be so negative." Bulkhead said.

"No!" Starscream cried when he saw his plan falling apart. "This can't be happening!"

"Now that's what I call teamwork!" Bee cheered as he and Sari hopped off.

"Ha, and nothing got blown up!" Fanzone had to agree, for once also in good spirits. "Now there's a first!"

Mantis and Drift shared a glance at that, both knowing that technically something _did_ blow up.

Turns out, Mantis was out of luck as the train in front of the other exploded. Pieces of scrap falling everywhere, one of them rolling to a stop by Fanzone's feet.

They all winced and Mantis suddenly found the ground very interesting.

"..........." Fanzone facepalmed. "I spoke too soon." He groaned.

"It was just a train. I mean, no humans were harmed and no buildings have collapsed." Mantis pointed out.

Fanzone sighed. "That's something I guess." He resigned.

They all turned around to see Jazz and Ultra Magnus driving towards them. Although the Magnus's faceplate seemed stoic, Optimus didn't miss the surprised look in his optics when he saw Optimus and his crew here.

"Commander, the AllSpark fragment has been safely recovered." Optimus said, giving him the fragment.

"What are you doing here, Optimus Prime?" Ultra Magnus asked, obviously not happy with how far Optimus's refusal of listening to orders seem to be going.

"Sir, I have reason to believe this was part of a Decepticon trap and felt it was my duty to warn you." Optimus explained. Maybe this could be the chance to finally prove his point.

"Only one problem with that story, _where are the Decepticons?!"_ Ultra Magnus snapped. It seemed like he was getting tired of hearing Optimus's Decepticon excuse over and over again without any form of proof.

At that, Mantis craned her helm upwards towards the cloudy sky. Drift didn't miss this and couldn't help but joke to try and lighten the arising tension in the situation.

"Think proof is gonna fall outta the sky?" he joked.

Mantis however was squinting, trying to make out a silhouette she can barely make out among the sky.

"Most people don't look up. And Decepticons are always up in the skies." She said.

Then their attention was taken away from the sky to the familiar dark blue snow-plow heading their way- a very ticked off Sentinel Prime.

"You gotta be kidding me." Mantis groaned. They did not need this right now! Bad enough Optimus had to put up with Ultra Magnus reprimanding him, now he had to deal with Sentinel's bull-scrap too.

"Optimus Prime, you are under arrest for assaulting an Elite Guard officer! Add that to the other charges against you; you can just kiss your career goodbye. Now whaddaya have to say for yourself?" Sentinel sneered, jabbing Optimus in the chest.

Optimus scowled at him, a sharp remark ready on his glossa only for it to morph into alarm when he saw something crashing down from the sky towards their area!

"INCOMING!" he yelled.

A click later, something- or rather, _someone_ \- crashed mere meters away from them. A small crater formed on the concrete and a screen of smoke came up, obscuring their vision.

Then the smoke billowed away to reveal a bot- a familiar magenta seeker.

Starscream.

"Huh, looks like your proof did fall out of the sky after all." Drift said, servo wrapped ready around his sword once more.

"What is that thing?!" Sentinel asked, fear lacing his voice and seemingly a few clicks away from freaking out.

"Oh, that's right. You've never seen one up close. It's called _a Decepticon_." Optimus said with dry sarcasm and a hint of drama.

"Well.....there's your proof, commander sir." Mantis said, pointing to the fallen Decepticon.

Then much to their shock, Starscream got up-signifying he was still online. The seeker clutched his helm in agony, oh everything hurts as though he just-

............scrap, Megatron offlined him.

"Oh, not again." He bemoaned.

"He's online! Stand back everyone!" Ultra Magnus commanded.

However, Starscream took advantage of the Magus's temporary inattention to come up close and aim his blaster at his faceplate before blasting him away from point-blank range.

"Commander!" Optimus called out as the point-blank blast sent the Magnus crashing into a pole. The AllSpark fragment in his grasp went clattering down onto the ground to Starscream's pedes.

'Seriously?! One shot and he's KO?!' Mantis thought, slightly disappointed by how easily Ultra Magnus got taken out of the fight.

Then again the guy did get blasted right smack in the face at point-blank range so who was she to say anything?

Starscream picked up the AllSpark fragment, a small sense of vindictive satisfaction knowing he now had not one but two fragments of the powerful AllSpark with him.

"At least this won't be a total lost." He said before walking off, his aching body not quite up to transforming just yet.

With a roar, Bulkhead charged forward and swung his wrecking ball, the brutal weapon slamming into Starscream and knocking him down. Then the Decepticon seeker got back up to his pedes like it was nothing.

Bee and Ratchet went up, using their electromagnetic pulse combo to try and knock Starscream into stasis. All it did was set up a screen of black smoke that blew away to reveal a still standing unscathed Starscream who retaliated with deadlier blasts of his own.

"How is he still standing?" Mantis asked.

"He won't be standing once I stab that slaggers spark out." Drift said before unsheathing his sword and diving into battle. "I'll stall, hurry up and pull your acts together!" he yelled at the others.

"Ultra Magnus is gone and Drift can't hold that Decepticon for long. What's our next move, Sentinel?" Jazz asked Sentinel.

Said mech then realized all optics were on him, waiting for him to tell them what to do next.

It was then he realized he didn't know what to do. This was nothing like the stimulations he had to score through and there was no protocol in any Elite Guard/Autobot Academy textbook he could remember to help.

"Er....right! Ok! Uh....." he floundered, trying to think of _something_ coherent to say.

Optimus seeing as to how Sentinel had no idea what to do and with the situation escalating decided to take the reins. Uncertainty in this situation would get them all offline. What they needed was action and they needed it now.

"Ratchet, you, Mantis and Sari take care of Ultra Magnus. Bumblebee, Prowl, Bulkhead and Fanzone, evacuate the humans from the area. Sentinel and Jazz, we'll take down Starscream." Optimus ordered.

Jazz was briefly impressed with the assertiveness and he daresay authority Optimus had to him. It was definitely a far cry from Sentinel. No wonder Prowl and Mantis dig his leadership.

"Stand down, Optimus! You've got no right to assume command!" Sentinel growled grabbing Optimus's shoulder. As if he's going to let this academy washout hog all the glory again.

"Yeah? Well some-bot has to." Optimus shot back. 'And I doubt that's you.' Went unsaid.

"Hey!" Jazz said, intervening and pushing both of them away from each other. "How bout we sort out the whole head-honcho deal later? Right now we need to stop fightin' each other and start fightin' the bad guy, dig?"

"Fine." They both agreed, coming to a temporary truce once more.

"You guys down with the macho bot talk yet?!" Drift yelled back as he rolled out of the way of a blast and back-flipped to dodge another. Charging forward, he parried the muzzles of Starscream's null-rays and riposted, managing to land a stab on the Decepticon before quickly retreating.

Optimus and Sentinel took cover behind the latter's shield as Starscream began to focus his blasts on them. Leaping out from the cover of the shield, Jazz quickly followed up by throwing his nunchaku at Starscream, briefly knocking one of his null-rays out of the picture.

"Don't waste my time." Starscream drawled as though he was bored.

Jazz flipped back to avoid the blasts but one of them hit home on his chassis.

"Jazz!" Drift cried, seeing his friend go down. Then he cried out in pain as two shots hit home on him too.

With two already down and Optimus and Sentinel trapped behind his shield while Starscream advanced closer, not letting up on his barrage of attacks, Optimus knew they needed to think of another tactic- fast.

Then he saw the stasis cuffs on Sentinel's waist and got an idea. He took them off and decided to put them to good use on an actual criminal.

"Keep him distracted!" Optimus said and drove off, leaving Sentinel to do what he could to hold the gunfire off. He gritted his denta and tried to hold his ground but the firepower of the blasts increased as Starscream got closer, sending him skidding back on the ground and much to his alarm, his shield began to crack under the constant strain.

"How long do you think you can keep this up, Autobot?" Starscream asked smugly.

"Long enough for me to do this!" Optimus said, having snuck up on Starscream while his attention was on overpowering Sentinel. Transforming, Optimus somersaulted mid-air and slapped the stasis cuffs onto Starscream, decapitating the Decepticon.

"Yeesh, Optimus, think you could've drawn that one out any longer?" Sentinel huff though this time he just sounded tired.

"You're welcome, Sentinel." Optimus replied coolly.

Propping a stasis-cuffed and mouth-clamped shut Starscream on top of Ratchet and Bulkhead's alt-mode, they all drove back to the Steelhaven.

^^*************^^

"Well, Optimus Prime, it appears you were right about the Decepticons." Ultra Magnus admitted to said Prime.

"But sir, that doesn't change the fact that he disobeyed a direct order!" Sentinel whined, a petulant tone to his voice.

"That may be, Sentinel Prime, but there are times when following your gut is more important than acting by the book." Magnus said dryly. "Wouldn't you agree, Optimus Prime?" he casually asked Optimus.

Optimus couldn't help but smile in response, both of them already knowing the answer.

And so it was decided that Optimus and crew- now officially a proper team- would remain on Earth with said planet under their 'jurisdiction' so to say for protection against the Decepticons and to search for the AllSpark fragments remaining on it, and of course make sure said fragments don't end up in said Decepticons hands.

The Elite Guard however had to return to Cybertron for the Magnus to begin conducting a war effort but they left them a crate full of stasis cuffs to help them subdue any Decepticons that came their way.

The four Cyberninjas had of course, bid one another farewell and traded comm link numbers so they can keep in touch and update one another- both for the possible Decepticon uprising and for their own personal reasons.

Drift promised once he could, he'd come back to Earth to help where he can. Jazz didn't mind was awfully tempted to return himself- already the mech's downloaded a playlist of Earth songs for the journey- but alas, duty calls.

"You guys are staying on Earth? How great is that?!" Sari said exalted but relief also spreading through her, getting rid of the weight she felt suffocating her chest. She won't be alone, they weren't going anywhere.

They didn't break their promise.

"Don't worry, Captain Fanzone. We can still hang out." She said to the grumpy police captain.

"Yeah, I'll clear my calendar." He said, enthusiasm as much as water in a desert.

Mantis chuckled. Same old Fanzone.

^^*************^^

Unbeknownst to the Autobots, they would be much more crucial in the fight against the Decepticon uprising than they expected.

Together they could stand and fight.

But together they might lose.

Whether they knew it or not, all they could do was fight for what they could until Megatron played his hand on the final card up his sleeve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi readers, you may have noticed that I changed the train scene somewhat. I did this because I wanted to give Drift and Mantis active roles to do instead of making it seem like they're just there doing nothing. Also in my opinion two trains that could potentially collide with one another is just as serious-if not more- as one train about to crash into a dead-end.  
> I wouldn't be surprised if the AllSpark sped up the train so much, it developed a one-track mind of sorts which might've caused it to miss a turn resulting in it zooming on the wrong track that is already occupied by another train.  
> Anyways, I'll stop rambling here now. FP, over and out. Peace!


	8. Space Buns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mantis has a bad hair day. Thankfully, Prowl comes to the rescue.

Prowl would call himself a patient bot. He wasn't bragging, he was merely stating a fact. The fact that he hasn't strangled Bumblebee until now was solid proof of that. And no, the few moments Prowl did one-up do not count as Bumblebee himself had been the one invoking the challenge. All Prowl did was heed it as the yellow minibot had demanded.

But right now, as he sat in his room in his usual meditation pose, a bird at some point claiming its perch on his knee, he could feel his patience slowly chipping away like old paint.

'What's taking her so long?' Prowl wondered, checking his internal chronometer and realizing it's almost been 20 minutes.

Usually Mantis was punctual on the days they had training together in the morning. If anything, more often than not she woke up earlier even to get a headstart. Sure she sleeps in at times like any other teen but never has she slept in on days where both of them clearly knew they had training.

'Don't tell me she slept in for once.' Prowl thought with a disapproving huff. He wanted to respect his sister and give her freedom but Prowl knew that although Yoketron did give his students a sense of personal freedom, he also made sure to keep an immaculate solid form of stern discipline.

'I blame Bumblebee.' He thought, reluctantly getting up and cupping the bird in his servos, placed it on one of the branches on his tree instead before heading off to call his sister.

When he arrived at her door, he could make out the sounds of frustrated grunts and annoyed yelps mingling among the stream of grumbles. Confused as to what could've put his sister in such a cranky mood in the morning, he knocked on her door.

"Sister?" he called.

"Be there is a few clicks brother!" she shouted back.

Undeterred, Prowl entered her room and saw a.......sight he never thought he'd see.

There Mantis was, staring at her datapad- which seemed to be showing her some video- with narrowed optics that radiated concentration and agitation. Her dreads were disheveled mess and it was clearly a mess she was trying to take care of.....emphasis on the try.

Mantis released one final long groan of exasperation before giving up on the losing battle.

"This has got to be the worst bad hair day!" Mantis cried, tossing her servos up.

".......bad hair day?" Prowl echoed.

"Uh, duh." She said, pointing at her disaster dreads.

"What were you trying to do?" he asked.

Mantis sighed. "I wanted to try these hair tutorials." She showed him the video on her datapad. "They make it look easy. It was easier when Sari was around to help me." She huffed.

"And why didn't you just ask her for help? You do realize she's living with us now." Prowl pointed out.

"I didn't wanna wake her up." Mantis said, running a servo through her dreads in a feeble attempt to at least untangle the knots.

Prowl watched the tutorial on her datapad one more time then glanced at Mantis and her messy dreads. Actually, the tutorial did make it look quite easy.......maybe she just needed an extra pair of servos.

"Sit down." He said.

Mantis blinked. "What?"

"Sit down." He repeated.

Confused, she complied nonetheless, settling herself on the couch.

"Now hold still. Don't move and....." Prowl blushed. Primus, if one of his teammates- or god forbid, Bumblebee- were to step in and see him doing this.......

His reputation would be as big a mess as Mantis's dreads at the moment.

"And?" Mantis implored.

"And keep this between us." He muttered. He placed the datapad in front of them, on top of the concrete blocks she placed there as some sort of makeshift coffee table.

"This might hurt a bit." Prowl said.

"It's a bad hair day, experiencing it every click of my life is bad." Mantis deadpanned.

Prowl rolled his optics. "Drama queen." He muttered under his breath.

"Heard tha-ow!" Mantis cried as Prowl set to work untangling the knots with his digits.

After a few painful tugs, her dreads were definitely more controlled now.

"Start the video for me." Prowl said.

She did. And so Prowl watched with rapt attention, his optics focused on the screen so intensely, if looks could kill the battery would be drained by now.

His digits went to work combing through the dreads, parting it and separating it. Grasping it as gently as possible and twisting it, hoping he wasn't pulling too hard to hurt Mantis's scalp.

Mantis's pedes swung back and forth and she seemed quite content with the way he was working. She hummed a song under her breath that made Prowl relax somewhat.

'Her dreads are thicker now.' Prowl mused. 'So much thicker and longer compared to before......'

It felt like only yesterday at the same time, a lifetime ago that Prowl and Mantis were sitting on the floor of the dojo, the latter giggling and trying her best to stay still while the former tried to wrestle her dreads into her signature twintails.

Back then, although Mantis would always insist on doing her own dreads, there were cycles when they became as stubborn as herself. Thus, Yoketron would help her deal with them.

And at some point, Prowl found himself doing the same.

"And......done." He said, finally finishing up the bun. He placed his servos on his hips and stepped back to admire his handiwork. Quite good for a first try.

Mantis used her datapad to stare at her new hairdo. She turned her helm this way and that, admiring the half up space buns nestled on top of her helm.

"It's perfect!" she said. "Thank you, brother. You're a life saviour." She said with a bright smile, glad her bad hair day was solved.

Prowl found himself smiling back. Right now, it was just him and his sister so.....he could truly let it slide this time.

"Don't make it a habit to call me to rescue your bad hair. I already have enough problems to deal with." He said.

"You see me as a problem? Ouch, that's cold." She said.

"Come on, let's get to training." He said and together they walked out the doors.

Looking back on that moment they shared however, Prowl couldn't deny the warm content he felt through his being as he helped Mantis with such a normal.....domestic-like problem of any other femme.

For a moment, it felt as though they were normal siblings with no problems in the world.

'Maybe......maybe this habit wouldn't be a bad one.' He thought.

And if it wasn't a bad habit, there should be no harm in doing it again some other time.


	9. Velocity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Investigating a mysterious blue racer, Mantis and Bumblebee find themselves entering the world of illegal underground street racing.   
> Unfortunately, Blitzwing has also come along for the ride.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, readers. In case you're wondering why I didn't write a chapter for Garbage In, Garbage Out, it's cuz I couldn't find a way to slot Mantis in and that episode is focused on Ratchet along with his two (unwilling) sidekicks (jkjk) Bee and Sari. Other than those three, the other Autobots didn't really play many roles so......yeah.  
> Also, keep in mind that although this chapter is set in the time as the canon Velocity, it is once again from Mantis's POV. And with her presence, there will be some slight canon divergence.  
> Hope you guys don't mind. Anyways, hope you enjoy the story!

It was late at night in the outskirts of Detroit. The streets were seemingly devoid of traffic, it was only natural since by now most people would be in their homes, tucked in and minding their own business.........

Then again, the Autobots never were considered as 'most people'.

"This is a waste of time. We're never gonna find that AllSpark fragment!" Bumblebee complained.

Mantis couldn't really blame him considering how they've been driving down highway after highway, road after road, overpass over overpass for quite some time now. Yeah they knew there was an AllSpark fragment somewhere but it was like walking towards nowhere and even she was starting to get a bit impatient.

"The signal was coming from this sector. And if we can track it, so can the Decepticons." Optimus pointed out, unwavering as always.

"Then good luck to them. If we can't find it on the ground ourselves, what luck do they have finding it _above_ ground?" Mantis pointed out.

"They have scanners." Prowl deadpanned. "Far more advanced and sophisticated scanners."

"......true." She admitted.

 ****Suddenly, a fleet of souped-up hot rods sped past them, whizzing and zooming past in a blurr, engines revving and leaving a trail of smoke in their wake.

"What's their hurry?" Ratchet grunted.

"Wait, those guys look familiar." Mantis said. Now where has she-

"Hey, I know those cars! They're 'street demons'. Me and Sari watch em race on TV all the time." Bulkhead supplied.

"Oh yeah, they're those street racers." She remembered. Seeing them brought back memories of that one- or was it two? Three?- times she participated in-

Nope nope nope, back up, reverse, nevermind. Best not to dwell on that moment in her life.

Then her attention turned to the familiar mechanical droning of camera bots/drones, no doubt filming the race.

"I think we stumbled on their broadcast set up." She noted.

"Amateurs!" Bee scoffed. Mantis did not miss the challenge in his tone now. "I'll show them a _real_ 'street demon'." Yup, called it.

With that said, Bumblebee pushed his gauge higher and didn't waste time weaving through the other cars, easily getting ahead of them, leaving them in the dust.

"One side, gentlemen! Fastest thing on wheels rolling through!" he said smugly.

"Show off." Mantis huffed. Of course the yellow minibot would never pass up a chance to race. Though admittedly, she was tempted to show off a bit herself. It was a race and not to brag but even she had her own competitive streak when it comes to speed. In terms of racing she may or may not have her fair share of experience in that field....not to brag.

But with Prowl here watching like a hawk.....nah. Plus, she has self-control. Frankly, she rather not risk becoming an adrenaline junkie that came with high-speed high-risk thrilling racing....again.

"I'll watch his back." Mantis said. She might as well watch the rear of the pack.

Pushing her gauge and revving her throttle, her sleek alt-mode easily managed to more or less keep up with them at the rear. Mantis had to admit, Bee really was doing a pretty slick job at keeping them in their places.

Then another rumble of another engine caught her attention. Tyres screeched as they spun against gravel. She yelped as a sky blue blurr zoomed past her, a hair's breath away. A pair of red brake lights standing out vividly against the lighter primary paint, briefly leaving a neon red trail as it sped past.

"Bee, you got another one in the race!" she warned.

Performing a brief wheelie, she pushed herself to go faster. She managed to close some distance between her and the new racer. Now that she was closer, she noted the sleek design of the vehicle and the sharp edges. Not to mention those wheels-

Wait a click.

'Those...don't look like Earth wheels.' She realized. Then again, it's not like she was a car enthusiast. A newer exotic car model perhaps? A custom made one?

Then she noted with alarm that the guy was carelessly knocking other cars out of the way, sending them spiraling out of control. Two of said cars ran off the road and crashed quite harshly against the highway- one of them frickin flipped over!

She transformed into her bi-pedal form and skated on pedes instead, closing the distance better so she was skating beside the mysterious sky blue racer. The windows were tinted so she had no hope of seeing who the driver was.

"Hey! Aren't you playing a little too rough?" she asked, rapping the roof of the car gently with her knuckles. "Pull over!" she ordered.

The only response she got was the car actually swerving to the side to ram straight into her!

Her optics widened as the car rammed her with more force than she thought was possible and yelped when she fell sideways as she lost her balance. She grunted as she landed across the car, her pedes and servos briefly dragging across the road sending sparks flying. Mantis quickly brought them up and realized she was laying across the roof of the car, the spiky antenna-like appendage on it uncomfortably digging into her midriff.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" she yelped- ok, this was a pretty awkward position. How could this car keep moving with her literally lying on top of it-

Hold on......how was this car still in one piece much less moving? Shouldn't her weight- even if she's one of the lightest Autobots in the team- have crushed it by now?

Then she encountered a bump in the road- figuratively and literally. The sudden bump sent her unceremoniously falling off the sky blue car and roughly onto the road.

"Ow.....well that was awkward." She thought as she got back up. Mantis quickly turned her attention towards the downed drivers. Thankfully, the others have caught up and didn't waste time trying to prevent more casualties.

A small part of Mantis wondered if that driver intentionally knocked those cars off to distract them, knowing full well the Autobots wouldn't just leave them. Awfully convenient...

'And circumstantial too.' She had to admit. Maybe she was overthinking.

Meanwhile, Bee instantly noticed the sky blur racer- probably the one Mantis mentioned earlier- zoom past him. He felt a flare of....angry competitiveness course through him when he saw how easily the guy overtook him.

"So, you wanna drag, do you?" he asked.

"Not now! Those drivers need help." Optimus reprimanded him.

"But I can catch this guy!" Bee protested. Then, as though to mock him, the sky blue car went even _faster_ and left _him_ in the dust as he sped off in a blurr. "I think...." He said, less certain now.

Back with the others, Optimus quickly used his mods to put out the fire of the car, preventing it from exploding. Inside, the driver- a teenage girl with her lower face concealed by a purple scarf- rubbed her aching head groggily. She turned around and started when she saw Prowl's faceplate by her window.

"Think calm thoughts." Prowl said calmly.

"And don't move." Ratchet added.

Too shaken to do anything but comply, Prowl used his shurikens to smoothly slice the roof of her car off, giving Ratchet the opening to safely extract her with his magnets.

"You alright?" Prowl asked when he noticed Mantis walking towards him. His optics widened when she saw the scrapes on her palms and pedes. "You're hurt-"

"I'm fine." Mantis said, knowing if she didn't diffuse this ASAP, her brother was going to fuss over her and go all overprotective. "It's just the paint job." A part of her was also glad Prowl wasn't there to witness her.......floundering.

"Looks like this one needs a repair shop." Bulkhead noted, gently tapping the other racer he was rescuing with his digit as said racer groaned and bemoaned in pain.

"You mean a hospital." Optimus corrected.

"You mean a prison ward!" a familiar voice chimed in. Glancing down, the Autobots saw Fanzone there with a group of paramedics too. "In fact, I'm arresting _both_ of these rocky jockies!" he grunted.

And thus, the girl- if Mantis's memory serves, her name's Ming-Li-was placed in a police cruiser while the less fortunate blonde racer that Bulkhead helped was placed on a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance. Mantis hoped he was okay.

"I've been after them for weeks! They're part of an underground racing circuit." Fanzone explained.

"Y'mean they race in tunnels?" Bulkhead asked.

"Wha- uh, Bulkhead, underground can also mean illegal." Mantis explained.

"Yes, underground as in illegal; as in they race in the streets and don't care who gets hurt." Fanzone grunted. Least one of the machines understood.

"That's not what Sari told me." Bulkhead mumbled.

Mantis sighed. She was definitely going to talk to Sari about this.

"What purpose does this street race serve?" Optimus asked.

"What else? They get a couple pay-per-view customers for their pirate broadcasts then it's ka-ching! Ka-ching! Big bucks." Fanzone replied.

"Makes sense." Mantis mused aloud. "I mean, _legal_ races don't come cheap. Plus, who wouldn't want to hit their adrenaline spike and make some cash at the same time?"

"You sound experienced in this matter." Prowl said, an optic ridge raised suspiciously.

'Scrap.' Mantis thought. If Prowl found out then she's so slagged and she doubt Drift could help bail her out this time. Thankfully, Fanzone unintentionally intervened, saving her- this is why he's her favourite cop, even though the guy is a real stick in the mud.

Fanzone snorted. "They all think its high action packed Fast and Furious till they almost _don't_ live after one of them hits a bump in the road."

They all thought back to the blonde racer who had to be sent to the hospital and realized Fanzone had a solid point. But hey, that's illegal for you.

Hearing a familiar horn, they turned around only to see Bee transform and all but collapse from exhaustion.

"You ok?" Mantis asked.

"Hey, tried to nail the guy in the blue car, did ya?" Fanzone asked knowingly.

"How'd you know?" Bee wheezed.

<*************>

With the situation dissolved, the team were back in their base to discuss the night's events. Bee in particular was quite vocal about it- more than usual even.

"We gotta find that blue racer!" he said, taking out a container. He opened it and Mantis was surprised to see two rocket-like mods in them. They were yellow with black stripes and had a roundish frame making them look like well.....bumblebees. Then Mantis remembered how Prowl once told her about the time Bee got himself a pair of turbo booster upgrades which....kinda backfired.

"If I could just use my old turbo boosters-" Ratchet didn't waste time shooting down that idea.

"Not a chance! Last time you used those things, you nearly flattened Sari and Prime." Ratchet said.

"That bad?" Mantis asked Prowl.

Prowl simply nodded in reply.

"It's not fair! Nothing on Earth is faster than me!" Bee huffed.

"Someone's being a sore loser~" Mantis teased.

"No I'm not!" Bee protested.

"But still, that guy was definitely faster than the average Earth vehicle." She had to admit.

Then Bee's optics widened. "Unless...he's not from Earth!" Of course, how did he not see it? Putting his- ok maybe he was a tiny bit of a sore loser- embarrassment aside, even he knew that it wasn't everyday you see a racer- much less an illegal street racer on Earth- actually have the resources to pull off an engine to provide that much speed.

"Think about it, only a _Decepticon_ could be that fast!" he added, warming up to his theory.

"Perhaps. But then why didn't it attack us? Why did they just run a couple of organics off the road?" Prowl asked.

"Maybe it's not even a Decepticon. For all we know, it's just a Cybertronian in general. I agree with Bee though, it's definitely not from Earth." Mantis chimed in.

"You sure about that?" Optimus asked.

"Optimus, I landed right smack on top of it and it kept going. Earth cars can't exactly take our weight, can it?" she pointed out.

"You fell on top of it?" Prowl, Ratchet and Bee asked in confusion.

"The guy rammed straight into me and he didn't get damaged. Heck, he actually hit me hard enough to knock me down. Like, there was barely a scratch. So yeah, either he really has some custom made wheels or he's something- or _someone_ \- else entirely." She said.

Prowl frowned, clearly unhappy over the rough treatment their mysterious sky blue racer put her through.

"In any case, we can't have you causing more accidents with your turbo boosters." Optimus said, addressing one of the matters they could resolve.

Bee said nothing though judging by the look on his faceplate, Mantis doubt he's going to comply to Optimus's orders.

Then again, considering what she herself can't help but contemplate doing, she wouldn't call herself an obedient by-the-book teammate either.

<*************>

"You lied to me! You knew those street demon races were illegal!" Bulkhead said as he confronted Sari. Said human girl didn't seem ashamed in the slightest as she leisurely sat on the couch, legs kicking back and forth.

"So? It's not costing us anything." She said.

"How does 'pay-per-view' not cost anything?" Bulkhead pointed out.

Sari groaned. "Ugh, fine, I pirated the signal. Big deal. You said so yourself- those races are _illegal._ "

"So that's how we can watch it without paying." Mantis realized.

"Yea- wait, _we?"_ Sari asked.

"I...uh....." Mantis twirled one of her dreads bashfully. "I occasionally watch clips of it in my room." She admitted.

"So if they break the law that makes it okay for you to do it too?" Bulkhead asked, incredulous. "And Mantis, I thought you'd know better!"

"I didn't know at all!" she defended.

"Oh lighten up, Bulkhead. We're supposed to be the fun bots, remember?" Bee chimed in.

"Yeah but we still gotta set a good example. She looks up to us." Bulkhead argued. True.

"Hello? She looks up to everybody." Bee pointed out. Also true.

"Hey!" Sari exclaimed, noticing the passive jab at her puny size.

"Says the minibot." Mantis sassed.

"Says the other minibot." Bee shot back.

"Says the _taller_ minibot." Mantis deflected smugly, her chin raised up haughtily.

Bee glared at her, deciding to give her the last word this time. He turned his attention back to Bulkhead to placate the giant gentle bot.

"Don't worry, big guy. I'll straighten the kid out." He said.

Yeah, Mantis had doubts about that. Bulkhead seemed to share the sentiment. Nonetheless, the big guy decided to let it go for now.

"..........." Mantis sat down beside Bee. "You guys gonna turn on the TV or not?"

"Uh....yeah, sure-" Bee fumbled. He was hoping Mantis would leave so him and Sari could watch those races-

"Don't worry, I won't tell Bulk." Mantis said with a wink, miming the zipping lips gesture she learned from Sari. "Sides, it's probably the only way we can learn more about the blue racer." She added on a more serious note.

Plus, she had a bone to pick with the guy as the humans would say. Considering he rammed in her and tried to knock her down- and put her in quite the awkward position that was definitely not her brightest moment. 

She tried to ignore the small voice in her mind that was telling her that she should feel excited- _exhilarated, thrilled_ over the prospect of being able to-

No. Stop. She's doing this for an actual reason- it's a mission. An investigation. _Strictly professional_.

Bee smiled, glad Mantis was on his side. "Quick! Show us those races." He said, passing Sari the remote.

Sari however seemed unsure. "But what about-?"

"Well, duh! Keep the volume down so he doesn't come back!" Bee said.

Mantis turned around so he wouldn't see the proud smile on her faceplates. It was simple but sneaky......she liked it.

"G'day, Detroit!" an Australian-accented man wearing a black and red race suit complete with a black and red race helmet appeared on screen. "Master Disaster here with the hottest street racing action in all of motor city!" he said dramatically.

Soon, various clips showed the numerous race cars revving their engines and participating in the race- including the sky blue race car.

"There!" she and Bee pointed out at the same time.

"See that blue racer? Has he been in all the races?" Bee asked.

"I guess." Sari replied.

"You know who the driver is?" Mantis asked.

Sari frowned as she thought it over. "I....don't think so. Actually, I've never seen the driver for that car before."

Bee and Mantis shared a knowing glance. Looks like their theory might be more accurate than they thought.

"Can you figure out where those broadcasts came from?" Bee asked instead.

"Piece of cake." Sari said, using her key.

"The....broadcast came from a piece of cake?" Bee asked, confused.

Sari sighed. "Nevermind."

Mantis on the other hand, realized something.

"Hey BB, come on." She said getting up and gesturing Bee to follow her.

Entering her room, she grabbed a storage container. She walked back to Bee and placed the box down on the table. Undoing the clasp, she flipped the cover open to reveal compartments filled with numerous colorful spray cans, stickers and other art tools and knick-knacks for paint jobs.

"If we're gonna do this behind their backs, I say we do it in style." Mantis said with a smirk. "And sides, we can't have 'Detroit's Heroes' being broadcasted on an underground racing circuit on TV."

Bee smirked back. Then he realized what she said. "You're coming with me?"

Mantis nodded. "I'm coming with you as backup. Someone's gotta watch your back in case slag hits the vents. I'll watch from the sidelines and come in when I have to. Sides, your alt-mode is basically a mirror image of Captain Fanzone's so......." She pointed out while gesturing to his paint job with the spray tool.

Right, that too.

<*************>

With new temporary paint jobs for their undercover investigation and the addition of turbo boosters for Bee, Mantis and Bee followed the signal Sari managed to pinpoint and found themselves standing at an irrigation channel.

"This is where Sari said the signal was coming from." Bee- now rocking an ember orange paint job with some rugged racing stickers to help sell the image- said, voice lowered for once. 

"Seems like the perfect place for an underground race." Mantis- now with a flashier neon green paint job with grey accents to fit the street race motif- replied in an equally lowered voice. It was the dead of night and Detroit seemed to be asleep, a stark silence over the usually bustling city. Both minibots subconsciously couldn't find it in themselves to break it.

"You know the plan?" Mantis whispered.

Bee nodded. "I'll let you know when I see the blue racer."

The plan was simple. Bumblebee would partake in the race and mingle amongst the other racers. He'd stay ahead of them to attract the blue racer out. Once their target reveals themselves, Mantis- who would be waiting up ahead on the racing route they managed to map out as backup- would swoop in and corner/surround them.

"Good luck. Stay sharp and stay safe." Mantis said before transforming and riding ahead to her vantage point.

Bee waited and soon, another familiar sound shattered the silent night. He turned around and saw the telltale bright lights belonging to the headlights of cars and the rumbling revving of engines.

"Here they come." he commed Mantis. "And here I go." He said, transforming.

He waited for all the cars to zoom past him before activating his turbo boosters and going after them. With the aid of his turbo boosters and natural speed- thank god he got the hang of his turbo boosters this time- he easily managed to outspeed most of the other racers, steadily getting ahead of the pack.

"Woo-ho!" he whooped as he smoothly outmaneuvered the other cars with the aid of his turbo boosters. "Finally got the hang of these boosters." Oh he couldn't wait to rub this into the other's faceplates later.

The only one left for him to outspeed is the blue racer.

Just as he was about to take the lead, all the other cars came to a screeching halt. Tyres screeched in protest at the friction and dust was kicked up. Noticing the sudden- and unnerving- simultaneous halt, Bee hit the brakes, drifting so he was facing them all.

"Okay...why'd you guys all stop?" he asked warily. Something wasn't right here......

He was proven correct when he saw the blue racer right there, zooming towards him full speed!

"Oh, wants a little showdown, does he?" Bee said. He was about to race forward to meet him head-on only for a pit to grow in his tanks when he realized his tyres were smack dab on top of puddles of oil- the slippery substance preventing his tyres from pushing him forward.

"Uh-oh! Good bye traction-" panicked alarm flared when he saw the blue racer getting closer and closer at rapid speed for a head-on collision. "Hello scrapheap!" he yelped.

Thinking fast, Bee flipped his turbo boosters the other way to propel him backwards in reverse. It did the trick as he managed to put some distance between himself and the blue racer, preventing the head-on collision.

That didn't deter the blue racer in the slightest as they didn't waste time chasing after Bee.

"Hey! Back off will ya?!" Bee snapped as he was stuck backpedaling in reverse. His current direction of movement did however give him a clear view of the blue car and he had to agree that while sleek with that definite speedster sporty race vibe, it didn't look like your run-of-the-mill Earth car.

The blue racer pulled over beside him and rammed into his side.

"Mantis? I could use that backup!" he called, mentally cursing that he hadn't thought of calling for her help sooner.

Mantis- who had begun pacing in worry when she realized she still hasn't heard or seen any sign of Bee or even the other racers of the underground race in general- jumped as Bee's urgent voice came through the comm.

"Where are you?" she asked, transforming and riding as fast as she could.

"Same area as earlier! And I've got a blue boogie on my-!" the blue car rammed into him harder this time. "Ow-! QUIT IT!" he snapped, seriously getting ticked off by this blue racer. Said racer seems seriously deadset on utterly destroying the Autobot as they repositioned themselves in front of Bee so they could ram into his bumper head-on.

Ok, that's it!

"So, you wanna play rough? Try this on for size!" he transformed into his bi-pedal form. Screw incognito disguise! Him and Mantis won't learn squat if he lets this guy demolish him in a vehicle fight. At least in bi-pedal form he can tip the odds in his favor.

Rearing his fist back, he slammed it down just as the blue racer screeched to a halt inches away from his fist. Bee's fist slammed down, cracking concrete like it was glass, creating a small crater in said material and kicking up a cloud of dust in the process.

When the dust cleared, his optics widened when he realized the blue racer was gone!

There was another screech of tyres as Mantis came to a halt behind him.

"What happened? Where'd he go?" she asked, panting slightly from redlining her gauge.

"He got away.....again." Bee said, frowning in frustration.

She blinked, surprised at the speedy and stealthy escape their mysterious blue racer managed to pull off. Mantis looked at the small crater Bee left from his punch and whistled.

"Nice punch." She remarked.

"Yeah, too bad I missed my mark." He said, glancing down at his clenched fist.

"Oy!" they turned around to see Master Disaster himself standing there in the flesh in front of what they guessed to be his broadcast truck/control center.

"Don't move a muscle! Or a piston! Or....whatever it is you Autobot things move!" Master Disaster said.

Mantis did not appreciate being referred to as a 'thing'. She had emotions thank you very much.

"You're Master Disaster! From TV!" Bee said aloud.

"You're the head honcho of this whole gig." Mantis added.

"Well, two loyal paying customers." He said, surprised and flattered that two big- literally- hot-shots like them knew about him and his show.

Mantis and Bee glanced at one another at the paying part.

"Well....loyal anyway." Bee said, digits fidgeting guiltily.

"Who's the blue hot shot?" Mantis asked, getting straight to the point.

"Who?" Master Disaster asked.

"The blue racer that just kicked the chrome out of me." Bee supplied.

"My star attraction." He said breezily, evidently proud. "You could say he doesn't make a move without me." Mantis didn't like the way he put it out. He made it sound as though the blue racer was some prized possession of sorts. Sleazy and sneaky equals suspicious.

"So you know him? The driver?" Bumblebee asked.

Mantis tilted her helm to the side. "There _is_ a driver, right?" this could be their shot at proving if their theory was true.

"Yeah, _is_ there a driver?" Bee emphasized.

"Sorry, client privacy. Gotta keep it professional." Master Disaster deflected.

"What, he's shy?" Mantis snorted.

"What, the car drives by itself? Pfft, you can't have a car without a driver." They both raised an optical ridge at that. "Well, present company excepted." He added.

Then Master Disaster realized that only the two of them were here. Just them- no police and he'll bet they came here without the rest of their team- which means they were _personally_ interested in _his_ races which also means......

"Anyways, forget about him! The next real race is at 2 a.m. under the elevated roadways near Dix and Vernor. You in?" then he glanced at Mantis and gave her his 'apologetic' smile. "Sorry, cars only. Not to sound bias or anything." He added, knowing she doesn't transform into a car.

"No hard feelings." Mantis said.

"Will that blue buzz-bomb be there?" Bee asked.

"Will you show up if he is?" Master Disaster asked.

Mantis frowned. Classic verbal mind game move.

"Slag yeah." Bee said.

Hook, line and sinker.

"In that case you can count on it." Master Disaster said.

Mantis's processor was spiraling into overdrive. This was fishy. All of this......the alignment of all the aspects- she was missing something, just one thing to connect all the dots! But what?

She had a feeling the answer had something to do with Master Disaster.

Regardless, she transformed with Bee and drove off. As soon as they a safe distance away, Mantis voiced out her thoughts.

"I don't trust him. Don't you get it, Bee? He's up to something." She said.

"Chillax, Mantis. I mean, yeah he's kinda fishy but considering his job isn't that a given?" Bee said.

Mantis's holoform shook her head to show her vehement disagreement. "BB, think about it. Isn't it suspicious? The way he talks about the blue racer? I mean, that guy's definitely hiding something from us and I don't like not knowing." She said.

"You sound like-" Mantis cut him off.

"Compare me to brother, doc or OP and I _will_ snitch." She snapped.

That shut him up. Instead, Bee and Mantis called in to Sari to give her an update on their status. For some reason, they didn't get any reply from Sari despite the call clearly getting picked up.

Before they could further question that faulty call, they both hit the brakes when they saw a familiar jet alt-mode belonging to an all too familiar triple changer Decepticon flying overhead.

"Whoa." Bee said.

In silent agreement, both minibots followed the Decepticon. Much to their surprise, they were retracing their steps back to the irrigation channel Bee was earlier.

Once again, their Cybertronian/Decepticon theory didn't seem too far off.

Blitzwing transformed and landed, Bumblebee and Mantis sneaking up from behind and out of the Decepticon's sight. The two of them spied on him, their vantage point keeping them out of the triple-changer's sight but giving the two Autobot's a clear view of him.

"Blitzwing to Megatron. Ze AllSpark fragment signal I was tracking has disappeared again." Blitzwing said.

"Rubbish! AllSpark fragments don't disappear. Keep searching!" Megatron ordered from the other end.

"An AllSpark fragment?" Bee echoed to Mantis. "Bet that blue racer's behind this."

Mantis's optics widened when she thought of a different picture. "Wait a click, I think you're right." She said.

"Of course I am- wait, you think I'm right?" Bee asked, surprised.

"Think about it, if an AllSpark fragment could send a train zooming at almost sonic speed, what's stopping it from doing the same to a race car?" Mantis pointed out.

"So you're saying we could be dealing with an AllSpark powered racecar?" Bee concluded.

"Maybe. I mean, it makes sense. The signal doesn't 'disappear' but rather, it's _mobile_ , on the move all the time like a car. Thus, it's never in one place making it almost impossible to pinpoint one single solid location." She added.

With a more plausible theory in mind, they both drove back towards base, knowing Sari probably couldn't cover for them much longer.

"Wait, does that mean the blue racer-er, car or whatever has a mind of its own?" Bee asked after a while.

That caused Mantis to pause. Did it have a form of sentience like the Dinobots? All things considered, the blue racer definitely was more controlled and stealthy than the brutish Dinobots, that's for sure.

"I guess we'll find out tomorrow." Mantis said.

Bee perked up. "You're cool with it?" he asked.

"On one condition." She added.

Oh boy.

<*************>

The condition was simple- they would come clean to Bulkhead and let him in on this investigation of theirs.

.............turns out they wouldn't have to do that since the guy already knew. This was proven when they arrived back at base, only to see Bulkhead already waiting for them, servos crossed with a disappointed frown on his faceplate.

"I'm real disappointed in you three." He said.

"Bulk, you can give us the I'm-not-angry-just-upset lecture later, right now we have bigger fish to fry." Mantis said.

"You wanna cook now?!" Bee asked.

"It's a metaphor." She explained.

"Oh, right." Bee said.

"What did you two- y'know what? I'm surprised more than anything! I mean- come on Mantis, I thought you were the responsible one!" Bulkhead went on.

"Oh lighten up, Bulkhead! Sometimes you just gotta bend the rules." Bee said.

"This isn't bending, it's shredding!" Bulkhead shot back.

"Bulk, we think that blue racer has an AllSpark fragment." Mantis said, cutting straight to the point.

"I- wait, say what now?" he asked.

And so Mantis and Bumblebee quickly gave Bulkhead and Sari a rundown of what happened during the race- the blue racer trying to destroy Bee, how said racer once again managed to mysteriously pull the disappearing act, Master Disaster's offer, Bee's acceptance to said offer much to Bulkhead's further disappointment, Blitzwing's appearance- which did not ease Bulkhead in the slightest and finally, their theory.

"Ok, I gotta admit, you two did some pretty good investigating and all but shouldn't we- oh, I don't know- tell the others about this so we can handle it _together?"_ Bulkhead asked.

"Cuz for all we know, we're just overthinking circumstantial coincidences. I say we wait till we have actual solid confirmation before leading the others on a potential grease chase." Mantis said.

"And sides, this could be our chance to prove ourselves." Bee said.

"Prove ourselves?" Bulkhead and Mantis asked, confused.

"I mean- come on, they're always thinking of us as a group of irresponsible incapable teenagers. Don't you wanna show em we can pull off missions on our own _without_ their supervision?" he said.

When Bee put it like that......it was definitely tempting.

"What's the plan?" Bulkhead asked.

<*************>

'Sometimes my plans suck.' Mantis thought. Her body was frozen but her mind on the other hand, was not- a blessing and a curse.

Not wanting to be left out like last time, Mantis opted that this time, she would 'participate' in the race earlier. The moment Bee, the blue racer and the other racers started, she would join them at the rear ASAP and watch Bee's 6.

Meanwhile, Bulkhead would be waiting on standby at a midway point to join Bee and use his bulkier stronger alt-mode to force the blue racer to halt. Thus, the three of them could interrogate them and finally get a solid answer. Should they not arrive there in 30 minutes, he was to call the others for backup.

Unfortunately two wrenches got thrown into the plan.

One of them was the real pain in the aft maniacal unpredictable wrench known as Blitzwing.

The other was Sari.

The sneaky human girl blackmailed them into letting her tag along. If they didn't then she'd snitch to the adults. Running out of time and with no other option to placate her, they were forced to comply.

This small addition really caused quite the domino effect. Apparently, their hunch was right- the AllSpark fragment was indeed at the race but it wasn't the blue racer. Turns out, the AllSpark fragment was actually installed in some kinda remote control that Master Disaster kept in his broadcast truck. It didn't take a genius to deduce that he used it to rig his races.

Sari of course, snagged the remote control and didn't waste time telling Bee to book it once Master Disaster realized the theft- said minibot had been surprised that Sari would commit such a morally grey act only for said girl to retort that he wasn't such a shining example either- which caused the other racers to think the race had started already too. Thus, they too followed Bee's lead and the 'race' was on.

Seeing everything steadily spiral out of control, Mantis was about to transform and go after them, only for her 'sixth sense' to blare crazily. Heeding its warning, she somersaulted, barely dodging the ice missiles Blitzwing unleashed.

"Blitz-!" before she could warn the others, another blast was sent her way. Blitzwing was too close, the area she was in was cramped with nothing she could use as cover and the blast was coming in too fast. Thus, the blast hit home, freezing her in a solid block of ice.

"Chill out, Autobot." Blitzwing said nonchalantly as he righted his ice cannons before transforming to pursue Bee and Sari.

Meanwhile, Sari opened one of the panels of the remote and sure enough, nestled within the circuits was an undeniable AllSpark fragment.

"This _is_ an AllSpark fragment! That's why Blitzwing was hanging around." She said.

"Not was... _is!"_ Bee warned when he noticed the triple-changer in pursuit.

Realizing they really could end up neck-deep in scrap, Bee quickly activated his comm.

"Mantis? Bulk? We could use a servo here!" he said.

"On my way!" Bulkhead replied.

"Mantis? Mantis? Hello?!" Bee asked, realizing the femme ninjabot hasn't replied yet.

"Blitzwing must've gotten her." Sari guessed. "Till Bulk gets here, we're on our own."

"Hang on!" Bee said, redlining his gauge and pushing pedal to the metal. The least they could do for now was evade Blitzwing and at the same time, lure him away from the other racers. No need for civilians- even if they were technically breaking the law- to get caught in the crossfire.

On the bright side, Blitzwing's ice attacks worked in their favor. The ice blasts created a blockage in the route when Bee zoomed through an arch, forcing the racers to a halt and cutting them off from the Autobot and Decepticon chase. But it also meant Bee wouldn't be able to backtrack later if he needs to.

Bee was wracking his processor for some way to get out of this but it was kinda hard to strategize while having to avoid getting hit by ice blasts and with the extra stress of having an unpredictable but powerful triple-changer Decepticon on his tail.

Thankfully, a moment of respite came in the form of his trusty friend- Bulkhead.

With a roar, the green Autobot charged off an overpass and rammed himself into Blitzwing, knocking the Decepticon off course.

"Go! I'll deal with im!" Bulkhead said, trying to keep the triple-changer pinned down with his bulky weight.

"Not if I deal with you first, slagger!" Blitzwing-now as Hothead said before his faceplate whizzed back to Icy. "Back off." He said, cannons tilting down and.......

Pointing right smack towards Bulkhead.

"Oh-" before he could put any distance between himself and the con, Bulkhead was too slow as he too was frozen solid.

Pushing the now immobile Autobot away and allowing him to fall down like a statue, Blitzwing dusted himself off.

"Now, back to ze punier Autobot." Icy said before changing to Random. "I always love a game of cat and mouse! Meow meow!" he cackled before going after the yellow Autobot again.

Bee and Sari yelped as spike after spike of ice erupted near them. Glancing back, they saw Blitzwing back in pursuit.

"This guy never gives up!" Bee gritted out through denta.

Sari kept looking back worriedly. She was positive Blitzwing would close the distance between them any minute now before swooping in to crush them. She gripped her seatbelt so tight, her knuckles turned white as Bee swerved from one side to the next, jerking her as he dodged the ice spikes that shot up from Blitzwing's attacks.

Bee swerved to the side, narrowly dodging another ice missile but it seemed to backfire as the missile he dodged spread a layer of ice ahead of him. His tyres lost traction the moment they came into contact with the cold slippery surface causing him to spin out of control.

"Whoaaaaaa!" Bee yelped as he tried but failed to regain control. Inside, Sari clutched onto her seatbelt for dear life and tried to keep down her dinner.

Realizing he has little to no control in his alt-mode, Bumblebee transformed into his bi-pedal mode. On his own two pedes, he managed to smoothly skate across the ice with a steadier sense of orientation. Sari who was placed on his shoulder couldn't help but laugh in childish excitement as they skated across the ice. It was quite fun- if you ignore the potential risk of death.

Skidding around so he was facing Blitzwing, Bee activated his stingers and fired in an attempt to incapacitate the con only for said con to dodge his blasts.

Sari grunted slightly as she found herself back in the familiar seats of Bee's alt-mode, having reached the end of the ice path and finding themselves back on solid concrete ground.

"Whoa. That was fun! Let's do it again!" Sari panted, slightly out of breath.

Blitzwing was utterly relentless in his chase. When Bee thought he could shake the jet off by going through a narrower tunnel, the triple-changer merely transformed into his tank alt-mode to keep up.

Fortunately, luck seems to be on their side this time as Blitzwing's attacks backfired on him. His strafing ended up destroying a bridge support, burying him under rubble and giving the Autobot and human girl a moment of respite once more.

Sari released a breath of relief when she glanced back and finally didn't see Blitzwing. "I think we lost im'." She said.

<*************>

"Turn left. Turn left. Turn left." The feminine robotic voice of his GPS chanted again and again.

"Hey! If I want a backseat driver I'll call my mother in law!" Fanzone snapped at it.

Unbeknownst to the police officer, Bumblebee noticed his car passing by, worryingly close to where he was which also means whether Fanzone knew it or not, he was going to get caught in the crossfire and he's pretty sure Fanzone came here to deal with human criminals not Decepticon criminals!

"Whoa! Hey, that's Fanzone's car." Bee realized.

Activating his turbo boosters, Bee sped ahead, hoping he reached the police captain in time.

Primus, he could use a servo right now. Where was Mantis when you needed her?!

<*************>

'Break you stupid pain in the aft iiiiiceeeee!' Mantis raged as she desperately tried to achieve some form of movement while trapped in this ice prison. If she could just make one crack form, just _one!_

Her digits barely twitched.

'Think Mantis, think! If brute force won't work, what else can?' Sure, maybe she could wait it out and hope the ice will melt but that'll take too long and for all she knew, Bee and Bulkhead could be dealing with Blitzwing by themselves while her tailpipes stuck frozen and helpless here!

'Ok, what would brother do?' she thought. 'What would Shifu do?' There had to be another method.

Then the thought struck her.

If _physical_ techniques are out of the question......what about _mental_ ones?

'Processor Over Matter.' She realized. Mantis recalled how Drift once told her that a trained Cyberninja could use Processor Over Matter to remove stasis cuffs and even force the thickest, most durable and heaviest set of doors to open.

So was it possible to break free of ice?

'Oh please, as if I could pull that off. Can I even pull of Processor Over Matter myself?' she thought grimly.

She was just a youngling with half-decent half-finished training for Primus's sake! What chance does she have to accomplish a feat most trained Cyberninjas more often than not, _couldn't_ do?

_"Try. Always try. No matter how impossible the task seems, try. That way you can gain solace knowing you went down trying rather than living the rest of your life regretting that you should have tried."_

Yoketron's last words filtered through her processor.......

Not too long later, she hummed under her breath. Mantis didn't know if she actually was 'humming' considering she was frozen but who cares? She just hummed and focused, trying to push past the barriers and just push push push-

The softest crack pierced through the silence outside her ice prison and one short hairline thin crack formed on the cold surface.

<*************>

Fanzone gasped in surprise when his door suddenly opened only to realize Bumblebee and Sari were driving beside him, the former transforming his door back into his servo so he could open his door.

"JUUUMP!" Sari cried.

"Why would I pull a bone-headed stunt like that?!" he snapped. Did this kid think this was some action packed spy movie?!

Unfortunately he didn't have much of a choice as he realized Blitzwing had come back and fire two missiles heading right towards him!

Unfastening his seatbelt, he all but threw himself over the slight gap between the two cars and into Bee with a grunt. Just in time too as his car was reduced to a pile of smoking scrap.

"Hey, y'know that's comin' outta my pay check." Fanzone said. Then he noticed something else. "How come your interior's so much cleaner than mine?"

"Hm...." Sari hummed, pretending to be deep in thought. "Maybe cuz it's not on fire?!"

Blitzwing still stayed on their tail and continued his relentless strafing. Explosion after explosion boomed outside and rattled both humans and Autobot.

"He's still comin'!" Fanzone pointed out.

Then an idea struck Sari. Of course, why didn't she think of it sooner?

"Maybe this'll slow him down!" if her guess about this remote was more or less right.....

Rolling down the window, she pointed the AllSpark fragment infused remote towards Blitzwing and tried her luck at the controls.

Luck seemed to be with her once more as Blitzwing transformed back into his bi-pedal form while uncontrollably spinning in mid-air. Whatever the remote was doing was sending him haywire.....even more than he already is.

"What is happening?! Why can't I control myself?!" he asked as Hothead before switching to Random. "Not zhat I ever could! Ahahaha!"

"See? This is how Master Disaster fixes his races, by using this remote control to make that blue racer do whatever he wanted!" Sari realized.

Still leaning out the open window slightly, Sari fiddled with the controls to send Blitzwing spiraling back and forth. She couldn't help the invigorating addictive sense of satisfaction at being able to deal with the larger Decepticon so easily thanks to the help of a remote of all things!

"See? This makes bending the rules reaaally easy." She said.

Suddenly, Bee hit a bump in the road. The sudden jostle caused her grip to slacken, the remote dropping out of her hand. She gasped, helplessly reaching out only to realize it was pointless and....she'd....pretty much lost the main reason they were here and the only thing that gave them an advantage.

"Well, that's the trouble with bending the rules. They usually snap right back at your face." Fanzone said in the I-told-you-so tone that all adults used.

"And now to finish this." Blitzwing said as he regained control.

Before the Decepticon could accomplish that however, all eyes shot upwards when concrete shattered on the walls of an overpass and......

They all looked up to see the blue racer driving full speed off the overpass and straight at Blitzwing.

"Whoa." Sari and Fanzone breathed at the bold yet admittedly suicidal act.

"Never give up! Never surrender!" Blitzwing said in bravado. "Nevermind!" he yelped as the blue racer slammed into him, sending him careening into a building.

The blue racer landed back on solid concrete and didn't waste time speeding off.

Bumblebee didn't waste time speeding off as well. Except this time, it was towards someone else.

<*************>

Had Mantis not been frozen- sadly, she still was- she would've jumped in surprised as she saw someone crashing down into Master Disaster's control center/broadcast truck. Then again, she can't say she was sad over the sleazy TV host's lost.

The triple-changer's attention wasn't on her however, it was on the yellow minibot currently standing up to him. Mantis panicked when she saw Bee- who barely even reached Blitzwing's hips for crying out loud! - face off against Blitzwing head on, his stinger activated and ready.

Briefly, Bee noticed Mantis frozen there- looks like Sari had been right. It'd make sense as to why she couldn't help him earlier- but knew that for now, he had to focus on Blitzwing. Once he took care of the con, he could help Mantis.

"Ok, Blitzwing, put up your hands!" he said.

"My pleasure." Icy said coolly before switching to Hothead who tilted his cannons and fired at the bridge, burying Bumblebee under hundreds of pounds of concrete and steel, effectively trapping him.

Bee groaned and struggled to get back up despite the massive pressure pinning him down. His optics widened as he looked up and saw Blitzwing standing there with his cannons primed for the killing blow. Before the triple-changer could finish him off, a familiar voice chimed in.

"Back off, oil breath!" Turning around, Blitzwing say the puny human girl- the one with the AllSpark key- running towards him with a remote of sorts in her grasp.

Aiming the remote, she twisted the dial once again making Blitzwing go haywire as he crazily spun in mid-air and made him transform halfway through both alt-modes and bi-pedal form. She was making him twist and turn even faster than his three personality faces.

"Now we're havin fun~" Sari said.

"SAAAAAARIII!" glancing to the side, she saw Bee just as out of control as he comedically imitated every single one of Blitzwing's bizarre movements. It was then Sari realized the remote was controlling any and _all_ machines nearby regardless if they're Autobot or Decepticon.

She also noticed Mantis was still trapped in a block of ice and since Blitzwing was here and under her control.....hm......

Tweaking the dial, she made Blitzwing's cannons shoot towards the block of ice. The ice shattered like glass, freeing Mantis who stumbled as her movement was no longer restricted.

Before she could release a vent of relief or stretch herself to relieve the numbness in her joints or thank Sari or warn them, she yelped as she found her limbs moving without her control like some puppet with strings. 

"What's goin-!" she was cut off as Bee was sent all but flying towards her. The crash sent them both down onto the ground. 

"Haha oops." Sari said guiltily.

Focusing on the matter at hand, she twisted the dial once more to force Blitzwing into his alt-mode before sending him rocketing off sky high.

Bee and Mantis walked over to her, Bee looking surprisingly crossed for some reason much to the latter's confusion. Not like he was the one with his skid-plates stuck frozen during this whole debacle.

"I told you to stay outta the way!" he scolded, servos on his hips. "Where do you get the idea that you can just do whatever you want?"

Mantis raised an optic ridge at that. "Gee, I wonder where indeed?" she said dryly, oozing with sarcasm.

"Yeah, I can't imagine." Another familiar voice piped in.

Hearing louder pede-steps, they turned around to see Bulkhead making his way towards them, massaging his helm. It took some time but he managed to break out of the ice though.....it looks like he's already missed quite a bit.

Peeking out from his hiding spot and seeing as to how the Autobots were distracted, Master Disaster turned around, ready to run while he has the chance-

Only to bump into someone and hear a metallic click as handcuffs were slapped onto his wrists. It was then he realized he had literally just bumped into Captain Fanzone.

"Mister, you've just been cancelled." Fanzone said. 'And you owe me a new car!'

<*************>

After getting another lecture from Prowl- more like Mantis was the only one getting chewed out while the others were forced to witness which was already torture in itself- the Auto Teens showed the others the AllSpark fragment infused remote and explained its capabilities.

"I think we all agree that this device and its AllSpark fragment are best kept in a safe place." Optimus said.

"And I promise from now on, no one gets to bend the rules." Sari added contritely, sharing a glance with Bee. Bulkhead and Mantis glanced at one another before nodding in approval though.....Mantis knew she herself should come clean about her own....mistakes when it comes to racing someday too.

"Um, yeah. And...while we're on that subject...." Bee said, sending a quick glanced towards Bulkhead and rubbing the back of his helm bashfully.

Going up to the rooftop, Bumblebee activated his stinger and used it to zap the cable connected to the pirated satellite, not only short-circuiting it but cutting it off permanently.

"You're cutting off my pirated satellite TV? Why?!" Sari asked.

Picking up the satellite, Bee looked at Sari with contrite optics. "Cause...it's time I started setting a better example for you." He said sincerely.

Bulkhead was right. Sari did look up to him like the little sister he never had.....and it was time he took that bond a bit more seriously. If Prowl can do it for Mantis and vice versa then why can't he do the same for Sari?

Sari seemed to understand as she didn't protest further. "Well...don't try _too_ hard. I might not recognize you." She said jokingly before walking back inside.

Bee smiled before he heard a familiar sound of a vehicle he had become quite acquainted with pierce the night. Snapping his helm around, he saw the bright blue blurr of the blue racer drive by up ahead, flashing their headlights in greeting.

"Hey! You!" Bee called as he waved his servo in reply. "THANKS!" he shouted one last time before the blue racer drove off, out of sight into the distance.

Turning around, he was about to walk off when Mantis's Cybertronian theory came back into his processor. Pausing, he glanced back towards the direction he saw the blue racer drive off in. Despite the fact that they saved his, Sari and Fanzone's life- which he was grateful for- he still couldn't help but wonder....

"Who _is_ that guy?"

**Author's Note:**

> Finally, Season 2 is underway! Hi readers, FP here with another fanfic for Season 2 of TFA. You guys have no idea how long I've been waiting to write this, particularly the part where Mantis gets to verbally slap Chinhead Prime in the face, hard.  
> Yes, I hate Sentinel Prime and nobody can stop me. And after watching Bayverse, my hatred for him remains.  
> Also I decided to add Drift in because he deserves some screentime and it would clear up any problems- since technically he was Mantis's temporary guardian so he probably would've freaked if he'd come back to Cybertron, only to find she wasn't there. So I came up with the easiest solution which was this. His presence is also needed for the plot of the story so he's not just there for filler.  
> Anyways, lemme know what you guys think in the comments below and stay tune. That's all. FP, over and out. Peace!


End file.
